


Tricks and Treats

by Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Marauders' Era, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-03-01 16:05:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 95,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2779295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron/pseuds/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marauders era story that journeys through the boys years at Hogwarts. <br/>Year 1.<br/>Year 2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write a marauders era story for ages but never had the time. The first chapter may be a bit off but since it's just the basis I decided that it needed to be written like this. Also I wanted to write a Remus that wasn't so hesitant to do things. Many fics I read are showing him to be a bit too timid but people seem to forget that he was as much of a trouble maker as James and Sirius so that's what I'm trying to show. Also Sirius is a bit hesitant in this chapter which can be explained not because he's OOC but because he's afraid of his family. He knows first hand what they can and have done which makes him a bit wary to be there which is why he's reluctant.

A whistle sounded welcoming students old and new onto into its shiny red carriages. The Hogwarts Express promising a return to one of the homeliest places on earth, at least that was what his mother told him. She had came onto the platform with his father to wave him off. But Remus could also see that it was a way to reinstate their warnings that have been drilled into him for the past month.

"You can't let anyone know."

"Don't try and exert yourself."

"Make friends but be careful."

"We only want you to be happy but if you have to sacrifice it for your secret remember that it'll be worth it."

They hugged him and his father loaded his trunk onto the train before stepping back into the crowd with his mother. Remus watched as their solemn faces blurred as the train took off and for the first time in his life he was truly left alone.

The compartments were all full. Rowdy boys wrestling or trying to impress girls whilst they looked on giggling behind their hands or even joining in the scuffles the boys made. They were all a bit to old and boisterous for Remus to impose himself into so he kept going along the corridor. He passed a woman who was handing out sweets and reluctantly bought some, if only to keep his spirits up, before moving further down.

Finally he found an empty compartment near the end of the train and stowed his trunk up with some difficulty before collapsing into the seat. He remembered that he had a book in his trunk and groaned at the prospect of getting it back down and up again so contented himself for the time being to just watch the countryside go by. He had heard that Hogwarts was situated somewhere in Scotland and that the muggles couldn't pin down a location because of the spells that surrounded the place. He hoped that he would be taught spells like that when he got to school and marvelled once again that he was actually going.

It had taken some persuasion and counter measures but eventually his parents ran out of reasons to say no and here he was. They had all been frantic trying to get his school supplies since they had waited too long to say yes and had spent the better part of two days looking in the second hand shops for his books and cauldrons. He didn't mind though as it had all been a fun experience. Anything that was normal was a fun experience.

A bang sounded outside but he stayed seated and watched as a red head pulled a scowling black haired boy with her. One of them must have been in some kind of trouble Remus summarised but didn't go and investigate. His father had told him that the other years liked to pick on the first years when they got on the train. It was fun to intimidate the new ones before they got he true grasp of their new lives as wizards and witches.

The time passed slowly. Remus soon found himself drifting off to the lulling rhythm the train made and only woke when a prefect called in to tell him to get changed. He did and was glad when half an hour later they pulled into the station.

A burly man shouted for first years and Remus tottered over cautiously, his eyes widening as the man kept getting bigger until he was two heads taller than anyone he had ever met. The man introduced himself as Hagrid the gamekeeper and moved them over to a port where little boats were waiting for them. Remus felt a shove and almost fell into the water as a small boy barreled into him.

He was blonde and chubby but seemed as scared as he was so Remus didn't call him out on almost drowning him. Instead he offered to share a boat with him watching as two other boys behind him glared at the small boy.

"My name's Peter Pettigrew," He introduced and offered his hand.

"Remus Lupin," He shook and helped Peter into the boats.

There was four to a boat and he found himself sharing with two other boys who were the ones that had pushed Peter. Remus was about to ask to change boats when they started moving. They didn't need oars and seemed to navigate the water like they had a mind of their own. He was in awe. Sure his father was a wizard but they didn't use magic like this a lot in the house. They didn't need the attention from the seeing something like this was extraordinary.

It seemed he wasn't alone in his awe as the majestic beauty of the approaching castle caught the eyes of the boys behind him. If only for a moment before the glamour wore off and they tried to dunk Peter into the lake head first. Remus only knew this when he heard a yelp and felt the boat dip dangerously sideways.

Anger tore through him and though he only yanked Peter back by his robes he made sure to elbow the boys hard as he did so. They turned their scowls on him and he sneered angrily back whilst checking that Peter was okay before telling him to switch seats with him. If the boys were going to bully someone it was better it be him.

One of them looked like they were going to do something but a bob in the boat made them re-evaluate the best place to have a scuffle and settled for calling him names instead.

"I'm surprised they even let filthy mudbloods into the castle. My dad said that at one time only the noblest of wizards were allowed to attend."

"I'm not a mudblood," Remus called jovially back to them. He didn't much care about what they called him, nothing could be worse than what he endured from his own family.

"I heard it's because of the headmaster," One of the others continued as if he didn't hear Remus at all "He's a sympathiser not to mention a bit of a loon."

"He probably has all sorts coming into the school."

"Well I suppose if the teachers are the ones to let this scum in then there's nothing they can do to remove it. It's going to have to be up to us to do it," The second one continued and Remus knew that threat was meant for not only him but Peter as well.

"And how exactly are you going to do that when you know no magic?" Remus shot back and sent a sneer reaching for the hand that was offered to him. They had reached a harbour of some kind.

He heard the boys spluttering at his passing words but paid them no mind and instead made his way with the game keeper to the front steps of Hogwarts. It was truly something to behold with it's medieval structure. Remus could imagine princesses in those muggle books his mother read him being envious of this castle.

He felt a tug on his sleeve and glanced at Peter. It seemed the boy wasn't done with him and seemed to think Remus was his new human shield. He cowered from almost anything that moved making him think of a small rodent looking for places to hide. He couldn't really blame him though since getting into a fight on your first day was bound to leave you jumpy.

"This way if you please," A voice announced from a tall woman emerging from the doorway.

They followed and Remus glanced at the woman only briefly before he was drowned in a sea of faces. The hall was large and full to the brim with students of every year differentiating between sullen looks at their food delay and curiosity towards their new house mates. Remus could tell each of them by colour and wondered which of them he would be in.

The blue was for Ravenclaw, a studious house that valued knowledge above all else and showed it with their intuitive gazes set towards the approaching first years. Though most looked pale from lack of sunlight Remus could see intelligence brewing inside of their tactical minds. The next house was blazoned in green and some of them wore scowls and smug grins on their faces. Slytherins. His father had warned Remus of these people. Most were purebloods with a few half bloods slipping into their ranks every so often but they usually found ways of beating their dirty blood out of them. His father had said it was a possibility that he would be in that house because of what he was and warned him to keep his head down if that was the case. They were nasty to half bloods but to dark creatures they were truly malicious. Yellow assaulted his eyes on the other side of the hall and Remus could guess that this must be the Hufflepuff house. He wouldn't have minded being put in that house as they sent him reassuring smiles his way and one of them even waved at them as they passed. The last house looked as equally intimidating as the Slytherins. These were the red lions of Gryffindor that though they didn't sneer like the Slytherins their faces weren't as kind as those of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

"Black Sirius," Remus snapped back to the present as a pale faced boy took the stool on the stand. He must have missed what was said to them and made sure to pay attention to what was happening so he would know what to do when his turn came.

It seemed that they only placed a hat on their heads and Remus was confused as to why that was. That was until it shouted "Gryffindor!" so loud that it echoed off the walls. The boy whooped and joined another one that was clapping loudly from the Gryffindor table. It seemed he was the only one though as the hall seemed to have silenced. The dark faces of the Slytherin's looked murderous and Remus wondered if the boy had done something wrong when his own name was called.

He went up and sat on the stool same as the other boy and waited whilst the hat was placed on his head. It wasn't there long and soon was shouting "Gryffindor" again to the room. He was a little shocked but got up and handed the hat back before walking over to the intimidating red table and sitting himself down opposite two grinning black haired boys. He may have shot the Hufflepuff house a longing gaze but he soon snapped out of it when his friend from the boat sat next to him. Remus consoled himself that at least he wasn't shaking as bad as Peter was and maybe Gryffindor wouldn't be so bad. They didn't seem as murderous as Slytherin at least.

The sorting was soon over and Dumbledore was standing to give a speech. The hall still quiet listened to his welcoming words whilst Remus' mind drifted off looking at the candles above him. It was like there was no roof. He could see minute details in the sky that made it almost look like it was real. The only way he knew it wasn't was because there was no draft.

His elbow was nudged and Remus glanced down seeing that the table had filled. He was about to thank Peter for telling him before being nudged again and seeing that it was an accident that he had been alerted in the first place. Peter was merely reaching for food across Remus and happened to knock him. He scowled faintly before tucking into the meal.

They were led up to the dormitory after that by a prefect who told them the password. The room Remus would be living in for the next year was round with four beds circling the walls. His trunk had been placed at the bottom of one with a correction of the black ties he had bought at Diagon Alley. They now showed a red with yellow lines racing through it. His robes had also been adjusted to suit the colour scheme of his new house. The other boys hadn't noticed or cared about their wardrobe changes though and spent their first five minutes in the room jumping on their beds. No parents around meant no rules in this room. Remus finally grasped the freedom he was facing and the black haired boys were embracing.

"This is brilliant. I was never allowed to do something like this back home," One of them chortled before collapsing back with a grin.

"Me neither, my mum would have a fit if she knew what I was doing."

Peter came out of their bathroom and back to the assorted treats he had brought up with him from the feast. Remus took hold of his pyjama's from his trunk and barricaded himself in the bathroom next.

Taking his shirt off he knew without glancing in the mirror that this was going to be a tough living position. But he could do it. He had persuaded his parents to allow him to come to Hogwarts so he had to face whatever trials awaited him. Even if that meant that he couldn't allow the others in the bathroom at the same time as him despite their insistent knocking or that he could never take his shirt off in front of them.

He cast a disgusted gaze at one of the scars on his arm before yanking his shirt over his head and finished changing. It had been a long day and he hoped that the others wouldn't be too rowdy as room mates. Or if they were that they held off until Remus learnt a silencing charm to block them out.

"Come on! I'm desperate!" One of the boys wailed from the other side.

Remus opened it to the one with the messy hair dropping to the floor as he did so. "It's free," he muttered before stepping around his scrambling body and towards his four poster.

He was lucky to have the bed that was next to the window. It would help him keep track of the moon. It would also allow him control over whether it was open or not. He had no qualms that these were the types of boys to forget to close a window if they had something else to occupy them.

"So what's your name then?" he heard the other boy ask and climbed into bed waiting for Peter to introduce himself. "Hello..." He trailed and Remus looked up to see that he was looking at him not Peter.

He composed himself and answered "Remus," quickly before drawing his curtains shut. He settled himself down feeling his eyes drift shut as the bathroom door banged open and the other boy joined the rest of them.

"Gone to bed already?" he head him pout.

"His name's Remus," the other one answered.

"He's probably just tired he helped me on the boat before," Peter defended "There were these two boys, both got sorted into Slytherin and they kept trying to trip me up and push me over the side of the boat. Remus helped me up and even told them off. It was really cool." Remus couldn't really remember telling them off, just pointing out the flaws in their insults. He guessed Peter was the type to exaggerate things and then scowled at himself for listening to someone else's conversation. They had lessons tomorrow and he had came here to learn not to stay up all night and fall asleep in lessons.

"Good for him," he heard one of them exclaim.

"Yeah one of them has to teach those slimy bastards a lesson," Peter gasped at the expletive.

"Too right."

Remus yanked his pillow over his head and tried to drown out the noises coming from outside his bed. The next day he was handed his timetable and shown by an older student where the charms classroom was. He may have been the first one there but he couldn't help himself. Learning about magic was going to be so interesting. Pretty soon people started filing in and the boys from his dorm with Peter lagging behind entered as well.

It seemed that they had bonded during the night as they were tossing their heads back to include Peter in their conversation. Naturally boys like that gravitated towards the back of the classroom so he had no qualms about having his work as well as his sleep invaded by muted whisperings and quiet conversations.

The charms professor was a short man named Flitwick who introduced himself as head of Ravenclaw house. They were going to be learning a levitating charm that when spoken was "Wingardium Leviosa." He couldn't help being nervous when he spoke it. What if he wasn't really a wizard? All those strange things that happened could have just been that, strange things. But then the little feather he had received started hovering off the table. It wasn't much but it made Remus feel like it was on the ceiling.

A bang sounded from the back of the classroom and he turned around with half the class. It seemed that the two boys had taken their charm a step further and were levitating the books of some Slytherin boy. The bang was when they released the charm and let one fall onto the table, messing up his quills and papers that weren't currently performing summersaults in the air.

"Mr Potter, Black whilst that is impressive wand work this wasn't what I asked you to do. Put Mr Snape's books down now and get back to your feathers," Flitwick ordered with a hint of a smile.

"Of course Professor," The one with the glasses grinned "I was just seeing how much weight the charm could lift." He set the boys books down and nudged the other to do the same. They both shot innocent looks at the Professor before going back to their feathers. Remus could tell that they wasn't going to be the first time something like this happened.

He wasn't wrong there either. For the rest of the day the two boys made it their solemn duty to manipulate the new spells they were taught into ways of creating mischief. They managed to botch up a sleeping potion and switch it with the Snape boy's finished one so that instead of making Professor Slughorn sleepy he was more animated than ever. They left the dungeons with him trying to get past sixty press ups. They had levitated paper aeroplanes in History of Magic to fly behind Professor Binns head whilst he was facing the board, unravel themselves and reveal their childish messages within. The only class they couldn't do anything stupid in was Transfiguration as Professor McGonagall had them reading the theory behind changing mice into buttons for the hour.

By the time the evening meal was laid out in the great hall Remus was sick of them. They were currently trying to stuff as many spoons of ice cream in Peter's mouth and couldn't figure out how it was melting so quickly (Peter was swallowing when they weren't looking) and he wished that he knew some spell to shut them up for a while. If they continued to do this in the dorm he was seriously considering hitting the library for the night to look up some hexes.

"They aren't funny are they?" A girl spoke. She had red hair and was scowling at the boys the same as Remus.

"They wouldn't be so bad if they knew what moderation meant," he replied and heard a giggle sound from her.

"True. It must be horrible having to share a room with them. I bet they don't even sleep."

"They didn't last night and if they do the same tonight I'm going to hex them quiet," Remus joked and held out his hand "Remus Lupin."

"Lily Evans. So what did you think of the lessons?" She asked going red.

"I thought they were great. I can't believe they let us do magic on the first day," He answered excitedly. It seemed this was the right thing to say as she also beamed at him.

"I know right? Sev says that it's all a bit too easy and that they should be teaching more advanced stuff," She muttered the last bit grudgingly.

"Ah," Remus nodded. It seemed that she was embarrassed before because she was a muggle born. He guessed that those from Wizarding families would know the beginner stuff already. She must have been dreading what they were going to teach on the first day. "Well I hope that they keep to this standard. I don't think I could learn more advanced stuff just yet. I couldn't even get my potion right today!"

She laughed and they spent the rest of their meal chatting about their lives before Hogwarts. Remus called it a night when he started yawning through his sentences and asked if she wanted to walk up with him. She declined saying that her other friend was still eating and pointed to one of Potter and Black's spectators with an exasperated face.

"Well goodnight then," he waved and started on his journey back to the common room.

The staircases kept changing and the hallways looked different when it was dark so Remus was having a little trouble getting his bearings. He stopped in the middle of a hallway and was about to ask politely the way from one of the portraits when he heard footsteps behind him.

He glanced behind and saw the two boys from the day before along with some older ones. They wore sneers on their cold faces and seemed to be advancing on Remus. He made a decision and tried to run for it but felt his legs give way. He tried getting up but his legs weren't obeying his brain and flopped uselessly beneath him.

"That's the filthy half-blood I was telling you about," One of the first years crowed and gave a swift kick to Remus' disobedient legs. It seemed that he could still feel pain in them as he let out a shout when the boy made contact.

"I can't believe Dumbledore's letting scum like him in," One of the older ones sighed and motioned for the other two to pick Remus up. They held him between them. "So what makes you think that you can slight a pure blood?" He continued and menaced above him. Remus was about to retort but felt another agony this one a stinging in his arm which made him yelp. "You don't speak," He pointed his wand menacingly at him "That's the whole point of this lesson. You can't speak to us that way, nor can you treat us in the fashion you did yesterday. Holding your head up high like you were proud to be a half-blood. Still it's probably better than being a mudblood. But if I catch you, or if one of them catches you doing something like that again I'll make sure that you hold your tongue permanently," he threatened and stalked off with the other two dropping him to the floor.

The two first years shouted insults as they followed the older students. He could feel his blood boil. They can't think that they have any right to do that to people. He tried to stand up but his legs still wouldn't obey him and his arm was starting to hurt instead of sting. Tears started to fill his eyes but he held them in. He wasn't going to cry because of something they did.

He made his way to the wall so that he would have something to lean against before trying to figure out a way to fix his legs. But they still wouldn't move and he didn't know the counter curse. He pulled himself to the wall and made his body go into a sitting motion before clutching his arm and tried not to let himself cry. He didn't know how long he sat there and jumped whenever something moved, afraid that it was the boys coming back to beat the half-blood out of him like his father had said.

When he did hear footsteps sounding half an hour later he tried pulling himself around the corner into an alcove so that he wouldn't draw to much attention to himself. But when he saw that it was one of the black haired boys from his dorm he relaxed slightly.

It seemed that the black haired boy had been looking for him since he lit up when he saw him "Remus!" he grinned and skidded in front of him. The boy tried to help him up but Remus told him after his failed attempt that his legs were cursed. The boy muttered a "Finite Incantatem" before pulling him up again.

"Thanks," Remus muttered feeling his toes respond to what his brain wanted.

"Anything else hurt?" He asked

"My arm. I don't know what they did but it stings," he explained and watched as the boy fixed that too. He rubbed the remaining pain away.

"I'm glad I found you I've been looking for ten minutes now. Ever since Peter saw those slimy gits. James is still trying to come up with some decent hexes after they mentioned cursing a first year Gryffindor," He rambled pulling Remus along by the arm "I'm Sirius by the way, you fell asleep before we could introduce ourselves."

"Remus," he murmured back embarrassed that his pain was something to boast about to those Slytherins. "I don't suppose we're going to the common room are we I'm kind of tired."

Sirius grinned back and pulled him along faster. The other boys left him alone when they got back to their dorm and Remus changed again by barricading the bathroom door before falling into his bed. He didn't sleep well. The boys kept haunting his dreams and he doubted that he would be able to go along the corridors on his own for a while. When Remus woke up he felt like he hadn't slept at all.

It was made worse when he noticed that Peter James and Sirius had made themselves his personal chaperones. He hadn't noticed it at first when he came out of the bathroom and Peter was pulling his socks on slowly asking if they could go down to breakfast together. But he did when after every lesson all three of them waited for Remus to leave first before following behind him. They tried to make it look like they weren't but he could tell that they had decided he couldn't be left alone.

By tea he was scowling into his meal, almost growling whenever he heard one of them so much as breathe. James escorted him back to the dorm and Remus called that he was going to have an early night again after hearing another comment about Quidditch being thrown into their conversation. He climbed into bed and drew his curtains steeling himself to confront them when all of them were back in the room.

When they did come up James shushed them and he heard "He's asleep," muttered outside his curtain.

"You think he's alright?" he heard Peter ask and resolved himself to talk to them in the morning. They were being quiet enough that he could get some sleep. If he told them he wasn't they might revert back to their noisy selves.

"I dunno when I found him yesterday he looked like he'd been crying," Sirius put in and Remus felt his face heat against his pillow.

"It wasn't his fault," James shot waspishly.

"I never said it was-"

"I know Sirius," James sighed "I'm just annoyed that they actually did something like this. What sane person goes around and attacks someone for what they are? It's ridiculous!"

"It's pure-bloods," Sirius moaned and he heard the bed springs creak as Sirius no doubt collapsed onto his mattress.

"We're going to have to keep an eye on him. I'd hate to think of what would happen if he was cornered again. We're lucky they didn't try anything worse than a stinging hex," James complained his voice rising which earned him shushes from the other two.

Remus pulled his pillow back over his head. He really hated listening to people talk about him.

He decided not to confront the boys the next day about their constant following and instead waited until after classes to announce he was going to the library. It was all to easy to lose Peter amongst the stacks. All he had to do was hide behind one when Peter turned away and wait a couple of minutes before the boy fled to find Sirius and James.

He took out a couple of books on hexes and curses after that and trudged his way back to the dorm to get some reading in. After last night he had resolved to find out as many effective hexes as he could. He wasn't going to let someone else fight his battles and hopefully it would help appease his nightmares if he thought he could hold his own in a fight.

Remus made notations and diagrams on the ones he liked the look of and noted down others for future use. By the time the Sirius found him on his bed he had two full rolls of parchment and managed to dump the books in his trunk out of the others reach.

"Are you alright?" Sirius asked nonchalantly walking to his own bed and flinging himself on it.

"Fine. You?" Remus replied.

"I'm alright to. So... did you run into anyone on the way back?" he continued discreetly looking over Remus for any curses or scratches.

"Not really, everyone's probably went to the great hall by now. Come to think of it, I'm rather hungry. Are you coming?" He walked off his bed and to the door watching amusingly as Sirius almost sprinted to get ahead of him.

"I hope they're serving ice cream," Sirius commented before scouring outside the dorm door and continuing down the stairs like he wasn't looking for enemies.

"I like it when they serve cake better. Chocolate makes me happy," he said and almost laughed when Sirius barged through a snogging couple to the door. Holding them apart for Remus to get through.

"I'll keep that in mind," He grinned and continued to be a nuisance on the way down to the hall.

Peter frowned at Remus when he arrived but a swift elbow from James made it turn into a smile. James greeted Sirius and pushed nearly a full plate of meat towards Remus. He cast a questioning look at James.

"You always seem to go for the meats. Sirius thinks you're like a vegetarian but instead of not eating meat you don't eat anything but," Remus tried to grin but felt his face heat up as he did so. It seemed that they had noticed some of Remus' stranger eating habits.

"Don't look so embarrassed, I sometimes wish I could do that but James here would tell me off for malnutrition or something," he nudged.

"Same but with cake," Peter joined looking wistfully at the table probably wishing some would appear.

Remus found himself grinning for real this time and dug into the food James had saved for him. He didn't notice the looks they kept sending over his head or the continued glances at the Slytherin table. Too busy making notes in his head about where he could go to practice the new spells he had.

His answer came to him when they were walking back up the staircase to the common room. They passed an empty classroom on their way which would be perfect for his needs. Now all he needed was for the others to leave him alone for a while so he could slip away.

He decided to do it on Thursday, two days after he had noted down all the spells he could. The next day was Friday and he had double History of Magic to catch up on the sleep he missed. He waited until the others went down to the common room to watch the older years play wizard chess after he had went to bed early again. Then took his robe, pillow and tucked the two rolls of parchment in his pocket. He grabbed his wand and made his way out of the dorm.

The others were too engrossed in watching a knight take off a rooks head to see Remus skirt around them and out of the portrait hole. He hoped that there wasn't any prefects around as he made his way into the empty classroom.

He moved all the tables and chairs to the sides of the classroom so that there wouldn't be too much noise before hauling his pillow he'd taken from the dorm and place it on one of the chairs he hadn't put off to the side.

The first was a jinx to make horns grow on his victim. The diagram he'd copied hadn't given much on how to hold his wand or say it but gave the stance to cast it in. He swore if he ever wrote a book he was going to include the former before the latter and tried a variety of ways which resulted in sparks shooting in various directions and making more than horns grow on some objects. He didn't give up hope and continued to try anything he could think of before trying to just flick his wrist and hope for the best.

"What are you doing?" Remus whirled and faced the amused Sirius Black lounging in the doorway.

"Practising my spell work," He replied.

"I can see that." He sauntered in and took the parchment that had been abandoned on the table "What's all this?"

Figuring that he had been found out, Remus gave in and told him it was "A list of hexes and jinxes. I'm not having you follow me for the rest of my stay here so I decided to learn some."

"Brilliant!" Sirius grinned "Can I join?"

"Why?" Remus asked remembering how easy he had looked on the first day reciting a spell that he had probably known for years.

"I only know some stuff. Not nearly as half as what's on here. Come on it'll be fun," He said and moved Remus' chair and pillow out of the way. It had grew ears instead of horns at one point. "Besides it's better to have an actual human target when you're duelling."

"I guess," he conceded and told Sirius about the spell he was trying to figure out "All I know is that you stand like this," He demonstrated and Sirius burst out laughing.

"Let me see this diagram," He begged and corrected Remus' stance when he finished laughing over it. "You're always meant to stand like this Remus. One foot back and a little to the side with your wand arm in front. The foot in front is usually the same as your wand hand."

"You seem to know a lot about duelling," He commented. Sirius turned a bit red and scowled to the side before moving him a bit more. "I'm sorry if I've said something wrong."

"No, it's not your fault," Sirius said and went to stand in front of him striking a similar pose to the one Remus was. "Now just say the spell and flick your hand."

"That's what I've been doing for the past ten minutes!" He sighed.

"Yeah but I wasn't here then. I can help you fix your wand work."

Remus groaned before trying out the spell again. It missed Sirius by an inch and promptly gave the table behind him some horns. At least he had the pronunciation right even if they were a tad uneven.

"You're not flicking your wrist."

"I am!" He ground out.

"Look spells like these are meant to be said in the heat of a duel so the wand work isn't intricate. They're effortless so you need to stop thinking about what you're doing and just relax. Take a breath and try again," Sirius instructed "Also try and aim," he joked.

Remus did as he told him and lifted his arm up so that it pointed his wand in the direction of Sirius and took a breath. Then another until he felt his wrist relax and just barely moved his wand while speaking the spell. Sirius took a couple of steps back when the spell hit and when he did look back at Remus laughed at the two identical pairs of goat horns that grew out of Sirius' forehead. Instead of getting angry at him like he thought Sirius would he just strode to the mirror and admired them before shooting a mischievous grin at Remus.

"This is brilliant!" He said and muttered a "Finite Incantatem" that made the horns shrink back into his skull. He winced a bit at them going back but returned to his cheery self when they stopped paining him. "My turn!" He announced and asked Remus how to say the spell.

That was how they continued for two hours. Sirius giving Remus pointers on duelling stances and them both trying to figure out the pronunciation before they tried the spells out on each other. By the time Remus said they should call it a night they knew four new hexes.

"Where did you even find all of these?" Sirius asked on the way back.

"The library. I suspect that we shouldn't use them until I've gotten at least another couple of less threatening books out. The librarian might tattle on me if I suddenly used one of these hexes straight away," He mused.

"You should just smuggle them out when you find new ones. That way she doesn't even know you have it," Sirius suggested.

"If not I suppose I could always look them up while I was doing my homework," Remus joined.

"Brilliant. That way I don't have to pilfer through them with you. We can just spend our time learning them."

Remus stilled as he heard footsteps behind them. Sirius cast him a questioning gaze before he yelped as Remus shot off down the corridor yanking Sirius' arm with him. The footsteps were coming from the way to Gryffindor so Remus had to go further down in the castle to avoid them. Sirius, having heard them a while back, was keeping pace with him so far.

He came to a stop and yanked Sirius into a dark hallway. Feeling his way through the dark he felt Sirius' hand clutch his arm so as not to get lost as they journeyed further into the passageway. They hadn't spoken a word since they decided to run but Remus could feel Sirius wanting to comment on how cool it was that they were breaking the rules.

He came to a stop. He was breaking the rules. He was out of the dorm and running in the dead of night when students were meant to be asleep. He felt Sirius crash into him and started running again finding that he didn't actually care.

The passage ended somewhere below the castle. Remus could tell because he couldn't find any windows, just torches.

"This way," He whispered back and felt Sirius clutch onto his arm again.

They moved in the shadows, slipping past the light that the torches cast with ease until they spotted a figure coming their way.

It was one of the older boys that had hexed Remus earlier in the week. His blood ran cold and he could feel Sirius recognise the boy as well. He put a restraining arm on him, keeping him from revealing their position.

The boy continued back the way that Remus and Sirius came until he stopped and turned to the wall.

"Mandrake," He spoke and the wall caved in on itself.

The boy stepped forward and before Remus could think he was following in after him. The wall closed as Sirius tackled Remus behind one of the tables near the entrance to the Slytherin common room and luckily the boy was the only one in the room.

He hadn't noticed them and continued his way towards the staircase leading to his dorm. Sirius still had a tight grip on Remus from where they were hiding and released him with a shove to try and claw his way out of the common room.

"What were you thinking!" He hissed trying to find a door.

"I wasn't," Remus said distractedly.

"Obviously. And now we're trapped in here until morning. We're going to be found! They're going to skin us!" Sirius groaned and gave up his attempt to scratch the door down to huddling in front of it.

"I'm sorry. I saw that boy and something just made me want to follow him. I don't know why I did it," Remus defended.

"Well you had better come up with a way out!" Sirius sneered and stormed away from the door to one of the chairs. He folded into himself and Remus wondered why he was so unnerved about being locked in the Slytherin common room. Surely him and James had been more than happy to hex the Slytherin's last time they confronted them.

He decided not to follow Sirius to the chairs and instead looked at the wall. It was blank and Remus wondered if it had a password to open it from the inside or whether it was just the same password for both "Mandrake," He spoke but nothing happened. It must be different he summarised. He cast his gaze around the room and wondered if there was another way out.

"Sirius you know about Hogwarts. Do you know who built this part of the castle?" Sirius cast an evil look Remus' way.

"Maybe," He muttered "I don't see how it helps though."

Remus walked his way over to him "It helps because there may be another way out of here. It just depends who built this part. Was it Salazar of another founder?"

"Salazar. He wanted every input towards his house's accommodation," he revealed a bit more cheerily.

"So if I was a pure-blood who was afraid everyone was going to gang against me would I put in another entrance? Yes but where? To near the door and people could grab me. It has to be further in. Perhaps in the corridors leading to the dorms. That way if someone broke in they might mistake it for an empty room and I'll have a head start on them," Remus muttered trying to get into the mind set of a paranoid pure-blood. Sirius looked on with disguised amusement and followed Remus as he walked down the staircase towards the dorms.

They were in a dimly lit corridor that veered off into two sections at the end. He couldn't tell which was for boys and which for girls but he continued down both of them until he came to the staircases that led to each.

He peered around at the walls and floors looking for any indication that a secret passage might be hidden behind. He found it when he felt a draft come from somewhere in the wall. Feeling along it there was a tiny gap that was hardly noticeable in the green and black colour scheme.

"Here," Remus murmured.

Sirius gaped behind him "Holy Merlin. How did you know?"

"There's a breeze. But that's not important we need to figure out how to open it," He spoke back.

"Password maybe?" Sirius supplied.

"I doubt it. With the things that are said in these halls the password would have been spoken at least once making it not hidden at all. Perhaps a combination of taps similar to that of Diagon Alley," Remus mused. "Don't suppose you know any secret pure-blood knocks do you?"

Sirius coughed uncomfortably behind him before moving forward "I know a few," He heard him mutter.

"Okay," Remus nodded suddenly feeling hopeful "We need something that's old. Salazar would need to be familiar with it. Do you know any?"

"Let me think for a bit," Sirius said and began tapping his hand on his leg. Remus left him to it listening for people coming while he waited. "I think this one..." Sirius said and tapped a series of knocks with his wand onto the wall. Nothing happened "Maybe not. Okay then this one," He tried again and still nothing. Until the wall started opening quietly.

Remus felt his eyes widen and shut them as a gust blew their hair. Sirius grasped his hand and came to stand next to him. They shared a look of excitement. Sirius tugged him forward.

But Remus pulled back. They had an escape now and suddenly he didn't want to go just yet. Sirius gave him a pained look and allowed Remus to tap the door closed.

"Why?" He asked.

"Why not?" Remus answered and began searching for the boy from earlier.

He thought that Sirius was actually going to leave him but felt a hand on his back as he peered around the door of the first dorm he went into. It was the passageway to the left and it seemed to be the girls dorms if he wasn't mistaken. Then again some of the Slytherin boys had really long hair.

They went to the ones on the right and looked in again at the first door in the corridor. There were seven of them altogether. This one was the first years and Remus really wished he knew what year that boy was in.

"Sixth or Seventh," Sirius muttered "He had a prefect badge that was why he was out so late," He explained and Remus smirked in realisation that Sirius wasn't as unobservant as he looked.

They counted the doors and went to the one opposite the first years. This one had second years in which they could tell because not one of them were taller than Remus and Sirius just yet.

"That one must be seventh," Remus told him pointing towards the sole door opposite the staircase. He watched as Sirius counted again the doors until he came to six and motioned Remus forward.

They peered in and looked at the boys in the bed carefully. All were asleep but none were the boy Remus was after. Seventh it was then. But seven wasn't quite asleep yet judging from the laughter that echoed out into the corridor.

Sirius paled when he realised that Remus was still going to go into the room and gave a huge sigh before following him to the door.

"What are you planning to do anyway?" Sirius asked

He hadn't thought of that. He didn't know much magic and the things he had learnt in his first week were hardly going to help him get his revenge on the Slytherins. Next time he resolved to have a plan first.

He thought back to the pranks that muggles played on each other instead and wondered which ones he could effectively carry out. He motioned back to the first year dorms and hurried Sirius inside.

The two boys from the first day were asleep in their beds snoring like banshees which made Sirius and Remus share a chuckle. He shoved Sirius to the trunk of the second boy before going to the first and tried to open the lock on it. It was probably magic that held it together but when Remus banged it quietly but effectively a couple of times it opened without any problems. He emptied out the boys things before thinking better of it and grabbing a couple of his underwear and taking them to the bathroom with him. Sirius had done the same and cast another questioning look at Remus. He motioned for Sirius to stand watch.

The baths were long and wide enough to fit the trunks inside so Remus had no problem lining them up to the taps and filling them with water. He hoped quietly that they were waterproof or his revenge wouldn't work out so well. The boys slept though the noises in the bathroom and soon Remus was whispering a " Wingardium Leviosa" motioning to Sirius to do the same to the other trunk and trying to quietly levitate them out of the room.

"Do yours first," He dropped the charm on his own trunk and made sure that it was on the floor before charming the water in Sirius' trunk to stay still and not spill out while Sirius heaved it so that it was leaning against the door with the water pouring out of it as soon as Remus released the charm.

"What's the second one for then?" Sirius asked since only one of them was wide enough to fit on the door.

"We need to get their attention somehow," Remus told him with a grin. "Quick pour it sideways as close to the door as you can and then run to the passageway make sure it's open by the time I get there. If I get caught you'll know and just leave me," he warned and watched while Sirius heaved the trunk towards the door and tipped it out. He ran as soon as the mini tidal wave hit the door and started flooding the inside of the seventh years room.

Remus heard a yelp then the door opened. He released the charm on the water and had the pleasure of seeing the boy that had hexed him being drenched. He heaved a laugh before setting off after Sirius hearing the Prefect yell in rage for someone to get him.

A hand hauled him through the passage and Remus used his wand to tap the door closed bringing them back into darkness. They listened as pounding feet sounded on the other side of the door and moved further into the passage so they could laugh at their victory over the 'slimy gits' as Sirius loved calling them.

"That was brilliant!" Remus heard him say as they made their way leisurely through the passage. He wondered how many more times he could get the boy to say that tonight.

"I know," Remus chuckled and climbed up after Sirius to where the passageway let out.

They were on the upper floors near the doors leading out of the castle and they made sure to replace the loose stone that had allowed them to escape from the Slytherins dungeons before making their way back to Gryffindor tower.

"We have to tell James about it," Sirius declared "He's going to want to know everything. To think there's a secret way into the common room that the snakes don't know about themselves. Brilliant!"

"You sure do say that a lot," Remus commented with a grin climbing another set of moving stairs towards the common room.

Sirius grinned back "It's not my fault you keep doing things that make me say it," he retorted and shouldered him playfully. "Besides think of the mischief. We now have an advantage over them that's just waiting to be exploited!"

"Well we're going to have to be better prepared. There's no way I'm going back down there without a plan and the know how to do it," Sirius gave him a blinding smile. "What?"

"You said 'we.' I take it that the rest of us aren't just annoying room mates anymore" Remus coloured as the words he had thought came out of Sirius' mouth. "James got a mouthful from that Evans girl about pestering Snape and she mentioned your name in passing," Sirius explained still grinning.

"I didn't mean it like that," Remus tried knowing that he did mean it like that. "You're all just a bit loud. I haven't really got much sleep these last few days," which was true.

Sirius looked shocked "Why didn't you say something. We would have shut up if you told us to."

Remus shrugged "I also heard you talking about me," He admitted and watched the shocked expression on Sirius' face turn red and embarrassed "If you are going to talk about me could you do it somewhere outside of the same vicinity as me. I get enough of it at home and it's quite annoying when people do it."

Sirius nodded and said the password to the fat lady letting them back inside. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Remus assured. "How about we start over. I don't think either of us really knew what was happening this past week," He proposed and held his hand out.

"Sirius Black," he shook

"Remus Lupin."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter. Happy Christmas and hope you enjoy it!

Remus was almost regretting his late night prank with Sirius when he came down for breakfast. His eyes were so heavy he could feel them refuse to open as soon as he blinked. But then he glanced towards the Slytherin table. The seventh years were looking particularly smug at the first year boys that were crying in front of Slughorn.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked sitting next to James.

"They drenched the seventh years' dorms last night. They're denying it but it was their trunks that were found outside of the door. Not to mention they said they saw someone that was no bigger than a second year turning the corner," James answered pointing past Remus' head towards Slughorn.

Sirius barked out a laugh soon followed by James. Remus didn't know how he had the energy. He had stayed up an extra hour last night regaling their tale to James. Peter joined the table not long after James and urged to be caught up in whatever he had missed while he was still coming to breakfast.

They indulged him in-between mouthfuls and continued telling it when Remus got up to go to Defence Against the Dark Arts. They walked behind him and Remus couldn't help feeling a little annoyed that they still followed him. Peter hadn't even finished his breakfast and was eating while he walked.

He shot a dark look at Sirius when he caught his eye but only got a grin in return and the door held open for him. It seemed that last night hadn't been a new beginning after all. James still used whatever magic he learned in the lessons to make others lives a misery while they were still getting the hang of it. The experlliarmus repellent was soon his new favourite spell. Sirius meanwhile was pointing out all the flaws with it drawing James into a heated debate, backed up by Peter, about how it was one of the most useful spells he's ever learnt.

Remus didn't join in and instead looked forward to History of Magic which was only ten minutes away. Two blissful hours of pulling his cloak over his head and sleeping.

It seemed that wasn't meant to be though. When they were waiting to be let into the classroom the two boys from last night promptly shoved Remus into the wall. He was half wishing he hadn't ran all the way here and left the other three in Defence.

"We know it was you half-blood!" One of them sneered looking down at where he fell.

"I don't know what you mean," Remus replied calmly reaching for his wand.

"We don't know how you did it. But you better watch where yourself-" He cast the horn growing hex he had practised last night. Soon enough, as the boy felt his head, there were two great horns springing out from his skull. They looked heavy and he started to totter in between squeals before the other boy reached over to steady him.

Remus raised his wand threateningly and since the two were first years he knew, pure-blood or not, they hadn't a hex that could top this one. They both took an alarmed step back and almost ran away from him. One of them supporting the other, whilst looking over his shoulder at Remus, towards the hospital wing.

Sirius and James sprinted around the corner of the hallway not long after the two boys had turned. They were casting concerned sweeping gazes over the people waiting outside of History of Magic. Like the two boys the others had given him a wide berth after he had performed the hex.

Sirius spotted him "Remus!" and ran over to him running his hands anywhere that he could.

"I'm fine," he swatted Sirius' hands away "They never got a chance to do anything."

"Are you sure-" James asked catching up with them.

"That was brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed looking at where the other two had disappeared.

"Yes and please stop saying that Sirius. I would have thought after last night that it wouldn't be that interesting," He spoke earning a confused look from James.

"Are you kidding? Seeing it in action is ten times as great as practice," Sirius waved.

"You two have been practising spells? Without me?" James whined shooting Sirius a hurt look. Sirius turned and messed up James' hair.

"Don't fret James. We didn't mean to leave you out. I saw Remus sneaking and followed him. It just happened to be a coincidence. We'll let you play next time, promise," He said solemnly.

Peter panted after finally reaching the classroom. "I always miss the cool stuff," James muttered as Professor Binns let them in.

Needless to say as soon as Remus sat down he pulled his hood over and had himself a nice two hour nap. After that they had Transfiguration where McGonagall finally let them use magic to transfigure matches into needles. Remus finally got it on his seventh try and glowered at James and Sirius who had gotten it on their first. They were teasing Peter after having tired of sticking the needles in each others hands to check the sharpness.

"It is a needle Peter. It's just brown," Sirius consoled before shooting a grin at James behind Peter's back.

"Yeah, if you don't believe us why don't you try lighting it. As soon as it doesn't you'll have to start believing us," James joined and waited behind suppressed giggles as Peter did just that.

He panicked as the fire lit and dropped the match onto the table. Sirius put it out in between laughs and not for the first time Remus wished that he hadn't sat at the front so he could try some hexes on them.

"Mister Pettigrew get back in here," McGonagall ordered as soon as she saw the chaos.

Remus was so happy when it was time to eat. All their lessons were done and he wanted nothing more than to sleep until late noon tomorrow. But again things weren't going his way today. Sirius and James were having a silent pea's war while Peter ,who they had made up with cheered, them on.

"A word Mister Lupin," He turned to see Professor Slughorn behind him.

"Of course," He followed the professor over to the staff table and over to the side where the two boys from earlier were standing with tears in their eyes.

"Now then. Mister Carrow and Dolohov said that you performed a hex on them in one of their classes," Slughorn said giving the boys a reassuring smile. It was obvious he didn't want to be doing this.

"He came out of no where sir and just pointed his wand at me. I don't know all that many spells so I had no chance of defending myself," Dolohov said and Remus was glad he finally had a name to put to his slimy hornless face.

"Is this true?"

"No Professor. I only performed a hex because these two have been bullying me for the past week. They had an older student perform a jelly legs jinx and a stinging hex on my arm. I was left for half an hour in the dark because I'm just a half-blood," Remus replied truthfully. He watched as the two boys paled at their prejudices being aired to a professor.

Slughorn looked faint. It seemed he had taken a liking to the new students in his care but also knew of the prejudices that Slytherin held for others. "Well now, I'm sure that they didn't do-"

"But they did Professor," He looked at them coldly "And they shoved me today, blaming me for something I didn't even do."

"We know it was you!" Carrow yelled gaining half of the halls attention.

"Mister Carrow lower your voice. And if you are referring to last nights incident then we all know that Mister Lapin wasn't to blame now don't we," He didn't even know his name. Remus had no chance of winning this fight.

"But-"

"No buts. We all know that a Gryffindor who was safely tucked up in bed couldn't possibly get into the Slytherin common room. And if he did then he would have been detected, no one not of Slytherin should know how to get out..." He trailed off and got back to the matter at hand "Regardless of the incident last night you did perform a hex on Mister Dolohov didn't you?"

"Yes," Remus sighed.

Slughorn nodded "Well in that case I'm going to have to take ten points from Gryffindor, you shouldn't be fighting in the classroom," He admonished and thus declared the situation dealt with. He retired to his seat at the table leaving the three students to return to theirs.

"This isn't over," Remus snarled before stalking off towards James' worried face.

They made room for him on the bench again and Sirius slid over a more than generous slice of chocolate cake. Remus was immediately grateful and stabbed eagerly.

"What was that about?" Sirius asked tentatively.

"I lost us ten points for fighting in a classroom," He answered around a mouthful of cake.

"But you haven't been fighting in a classroom," Peter replied confused.

"Those dirty snitches," James growled shooting dark looks at the Slytherin table where the other two had taken their seats. "They're the ones that should be punished not you. You were just defending yourself," he argued.

"I know that-"

"It's Slughorn," Sirius put in "He knows about what they do but turns a blind eye because of his stupid club. That's why they also didn't get a detention for what happened with the seventh years. There's literally nothing you can do Remus."

"Club?" Peter asked

"Slug Club. It's his little trophy collection of people he thinks are going to do big things. Mostly pure-bloods and mostly Slytheirns. He excuses anything they do so long as he gets the rewards after they're famous," He spoke bitterly and scowled whilst he did so. Remus had a feeling that Sirius had been asked to join and wondered vaguely why he declined. It seemed that a trouble maker would want a get out of jail free card.

"Figures," James muttered before nudging Remus back to his food "Don't dwell on it."

"I'm not," Which was partly true.

They made their way back to the tower and finally Remus got to do the thing he was dreaming of and collapsed into his pillow.

He didn't wake until noon as the persistent light of day kept creeping in under his eyelids. He finally got up to a room that was in total chaos. Peter and Sirius were wrestling on the floor while James was spelling his curtains. The whole room was also covered in horns.

"Remus you're awake," Sirius cheered and let Peter go to bound over to Remus' bed.

He was still sitting in shock "What did you guys do?"

"James wanted to learn the hex but you were asleep," Sirius explained.

"Yeah so Sirius decided to teach us it. It took a while," A pointed glare at Peter "But we got there in the end."

"I was thinking of teaching them this one I heard where you can shoot arrows from your want," Sirius beamed.

"Now?"

"Why not?" He pouted "James wants to learn with us and this way we won't be caught by teachers sneaking around in empty classrooms."

"I suppose," He agreed vaguely still staring at the horns that adorned the room. "No, wait! We need rules. If we don't have any then someone's going to get hurt."

"No," James moaned "Rules are for wimps."

"They're for people who don't want to be stuck with one arm. We can't just learn whatever spell we like and hope for the best that it'll work," Remus argued. "I learnt the spells that I researched and knew the counter curse too. What would happen if you saw a spell, tried it out and ended up being stuck like that. Or worse being taken to Pomphrey in front of the entire school. The teachers will know that we've been practising things we shouldn't and it'll be humiliating,"

"Remus is right," Sirius agreed and earned himself another drawn out groan from James who was accompanied by Peter. "I say we do the ones on your list and when we're done with them we can research others and only then attempt them."

"You're going soft Black," James complained.

"No, I'm just being practical. I want to learn these just as much as you do but Remus has a point. So stop being a baby and help me look for another spell to learn," Sirius grabbed the parchment where Remus had wrote all the spells down.

"Another thing," Remus interjected earning even more groans "I think we should only learn a couple a week. If we learn too many at once we'll forget them or they'll become sloppy. I say we pick two to learn and the next week we go over them before learning new ones."

"Aw come on," James whined.

"Think of it this way. If we learn enough the practising will turn into duels," Remus negotiated and saw a spark light in James' eyes. He left them there debating whether to follow Remus' new rule to get ready in the bathroom.

Coming out he saw that they had reached an agreement "Alright," James spoke holding his hand out "But I better become a damn dueller by the end of this," He joked.

"That's the idea," Remus agreed and shook his hand.

They decided to learn the other three that Sirius and Remus had learnt on Thursday just so the others would be caught up. Peter wasn't quite as natural to learning magic as James was and Remus kept adjusting his stances like Sirius had taught him. The other two were firing off rounds of the hexes to each other making it into a mini duel. Remus reminded himself to look up defensive spells as soon as Sirius was hit in the chest by a jinx.

By tea they were all exhausted. Luckily there were no meddling first years or threatening seventh years to keep them from their food and they happily tucked in. Since it was the first week the boys had nothing but reading for their homework and since that could be done in a matter of an hour with them all conferring their passages together they had all of Sunday to plan for.

"I say we do something outside," James suggested.

"No," Peter vetoed.

"Why not?" He whined.

"It's cold and looks like it's gonna rain. Besides we have those flying lessons on Wednesday, I'd rather not be out of the castle more than I have to," He complained casting a worrying look at the enchanted ceiling. Sure enough small patches of rain were dribbling from the sky. Luckily it was enchanted only to look like that and not actually hit the students with water.

"Peter's right," Remus agreed. He actually wanted to go outside but was worried that he might run into some foul people again.

"Do you think it's a shielding charm?" Sirius wondered. He hadn't been paying attention to their discussion at all. He had drifted into a world of his own as soon as Peter mentioned the rain.

"What?" James asked around a mouthful of chicken.

"Chew or die," Remus threatened his way. James swallowed and asked again.

Sirius just shrugged "I was just wondering how he did it. Whether it actually is the weather and there's a shield protecting us from the water or if it's just an illusion."

"I think it's just an illusion. I wouldn't worry too much," James reassured "It wont reach us. Dumbledore would go off it if it did."

"Not to mention others," Remus muttered gazing at the ceiling with a thoughtful frown.

Sirius' head whipped around to stare at him "You have that look."

"What look?" Remus asked inspecting his spoon to see what Sirius meant.

"The one you wore just before we slipped into the snakes common room. What is it?" he inquired peering closely at Remus.

He sighed before relenting "I was just thinking that to even make it rain in the hall would be magic beyond first years," He shrugged.

"And..." Sirius prompted earning to curious stares of James and Peter.

"So if it were to rain it we would be beyond suspicion."

"Brilliant!" Sirius sighed gazing adoringly at Remus.

"What is?" James queried.

"Think about it James. If we did this we could pull one over on Dumbledore. You're always telling me that you want to aim high for our first prank of our careers and why not this?"

"Make it rain," James pondered with a smirk.

"Chaos everywhere. Students drenched and teachers shouting and the best bit is just like Remus said; we'd be above suspicion. It's like Slytherin all over again," He conferred excitedly.

"I'm not getting involved," Remus warned and got Sirius' attention back on him.

"This is your idea. Why not?" he pouted.

"Because you're going to get caught," He explained like it was obvious.

"You just said-" James argued.

"That was before you made it a whole school thing. It's sloppy wandmanship to target a big audience and the teachers will suspect a lower student because of the simplicity of the spells. If you concentrated it to a specific target then not only does it actually become a prank instead of a default but the complications will make sure that first years are out," James and Peter looked at him in shock whilst Sirius still had that adoring look on his face.

"What did I tell you James," He nudged.

"Merlin," James sighed "I didn't think you were serious."

"Bloody genius. So Remus go anyone in mind for the target?" Sirius asked slyly looking over to the Slytherin table.

"Maybe," He smirked but cast his gaze further up from Carrow towards the seventh year.

"You really do hold a grudge don't you?" James smirked.

"It's not a grudge. I already got my revenge on him. This prank is all about those two," he nodded in Dolohov's direction.

"Then why are we making him the target?" Peter asked.

"You'll see," Remus smirked and bent his head to confer with the others.

Sunday was spent in the library. Remus had pulled Hogwarts a History from the shelves and was pouring over it to see if it was an illusion or a cleverly cast spell to reflect the weather.

"Does it matter?" Peter asked.

"Yes," Remus whispered back "If it's an illusion then we're going to have to create our own water but if it isn't all we have to do is try to concentrate a hole in the shields keeping the water out."

"What if it isn't raining when we do the spell?"

Remus gave him a look "It's Britain in September, it's always raining."

James and Sirius' job was to look for charms and spells on water and shields. Remus suggested the Defence books for the shields as well as charms and asked Peter to go help Sirius. It was mostly to get him to stop reading over his shoulder.

Remus eventually found that it was just an illusion and started helping the others look for spells that would make it rain.

"What about this one?" Sirius asked handing the book over to James.

"No. Urgh this is hopeless. Remus all the ones we've found aren't concentrated. They fill the entire structure of the room any luck on your side?"

"No, same problem," They all sighed despairingly.

"Ooh," Sirius piped sitting up straighter "I have an idea. What if we do what Remus suggested if it wasn't an illusion. Break a hole in the shield that was there."

"Yes," James agreed catching onto the idea.

"But there isn't a shield there. I thought we'd already established that," Peter spoke.

"There isn't," Remus joined Sirius and James on the same wavelength "But we can always make one. And it doesn't even have to be penetrated-"

"We can just create it to the size we want-" James continued excitedly.

"Then just sit back and watch it rain," Sirius finished beaming at their genius.

They spit off into sections. James Remus researching about raining charms while Sirius and Peter looked at the shield spells. Most of the shields they came across were defensive and short term which wouldn't work for their prank because they needed it up for at least 24 hours if they wanted to avoid suspicion.

By the end of the day they had snuck out three books from the library and hadn't done any of their reading for classes. It was only when the moon was casting its pale glow onto Remus' bed that he remembered they had any. After that there was a frantic three hours of death threats, reading and blackmailing each other into giving up their notes.

Monday had them all on edge. Gone were the playful boys of the first week since their attentions were focused on getting these charms right. They had agreed that they would practise it in the dorm that night after getting the counter curse correct first. The professors didn't think much of the boys quiet behaviour and probably believed that it was just nerves that had them acting out the previous week. But when Remus caught their gazes in classes he couldn't help wondering how they were so blind to the blatant evil that was shining in their eyes. He couldn't wait to perfect this prank.

Carrow and Dolohov hadn't approached Remus since his humiliation in the great hall but he knew they were watching him, just as he was watching them. He didn't doubt for a second that the prank they were planning could get blamed on them again. Despite what he had said about this being too complex for a first year to attempt he knew that with the right evidence all that could be forgotten. But he was going to need a few things before he could watch them receive the punishment they so rightfully deserved.

They didn't get the hang of the shield. The rain was easy to make after they perfected their stances but the shield was harder to conjure. They didn't get it that night and ended up with a drenched dorm that had endured three hours of constant rain. They were going to try for a fourth but Peter was already shivering from the coldness of the rain so they cast the counter spell.

"This is going to take a while isn't it?" James frowned.

"If we want to do this right," Sirius muttered kicking at one of his drenched robes on the floor.

"And we do," Remus added not making them go back on their word now. "We'll try again on Wednesday."

"Why not tomorrow?" James asked.

Remus looked up startled "Erm, I wanted to finish my homework tomorrow. I don't want a repeat of Sunday. Not to mention this is our first real essay, I want to impress," He lied and saw the others cast disgusted looks in his direction "You don't have to. I'm just telling you what I'll be doing. Cast the charm for all I care," he waved off before retreating to the empty bathroom.

Tuesday was hell. He knew he was going to have a bad day from the moment he woke up. For one the light that was shining in his window was too high meaning he had overslept. He kicked back his quilt before sprinting down to his first lesson. By lunch he was starving and bouncing with energy. He couldn't keep still and had been told more than once to pay attention to what was being said.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Peter asked concerned.

"Fine," But his leg was bouncing madly under the table to the same rhythm his fingers were drumming.

And how's Mr Hyper this fine day?" James teased stealing some chicken from Remus' plate.

"I'm not hyper," He snapped. He expected James to go off in a huff but instead he just laughed.

"Hey Sirius, why don't we take him for a run after classes. That always makes me feel better when I've had too much sugar," James laughed and tried to still Remus' hand. He just pulled out of James' reach and started tapping his fork on his plate absent-mindedly.

"Sure," Sirius agreed "I could use a good stretch. Too bad flying's tomorrow, I wouldn't have minded a good soar before bed."

"Too right," James agreed.

They trudged off to their last classes of the day. True to their word as soon as the Defence Against the Dark Arts had finished Sirius and James tugged Remus outside into the damp Hogwarts grounds and proceeded to chase him for two hours. Peter hadn't the stamina nor the will to keep up with them and just told them he was going to save them a seat at the table for when they came in.

Remus had fallen over twice and tackled both James and Sirius a good number of times so that when they did go in for their supper they were covered in mud. They received glared from students and teachers alike but were too cheery to care.

At least Remus was until Dumbledore caught his eye. He made a subtle gesture with his head telling Remus to get moving. He made some excuse to James and Peter about having to clean the mud off him and told Sirius that if he was asleep when they got back not to wake them.

"Finally crashing?" Sirius smirked.

"Definitely," Remus replied not having to fake the weariness that settled over his features.

He walked to the infirmary to be greeted by Madam Pomphrey. She cast him a pitying gaze before leading him out of the castle and towards the whomping willow. She didn't come through the tunnel, preferring to make the journey only once a month, so Remus had to walk it alone.

The shack wasn't all that bad. It had furniture and a bed upstairs for when he returned to normal. But it smelled wrong and he knew this was going to agitate him in a couple of hours. He sighed and decided to make the traditional routine of taking his clothes off and finding a good place to hide them. Hoping that he wouldn't destroy them for having his scent on them.

Then it was just a waiting game. But he wasn't bored. The agitation he had felt all day had grown to a full blown itch that burrowed under his skin. He felt like scratching and biting at his arm to try and alleviate at least some of the annoyance but knew that this wouldn't make it go away. Finally, just when he couldn't take anymore, his shoulder broke sending him screaming to the floor. Then nothing.

He woke to a white light shining in his eyes and squinted as he hastily pulled himself up. Mistake. His leg ached and so did his ribs and neck.

"Not so fast," Madam Pomphrey screeched noticing him awake. She pushed him back against his pillow before checking his bandages. "Good, you haven't pulled the skin back open. You need to take it easy. Some of these wounds were nastier than I thought and you haven't fully recovered." She shoved potions down his throat before straightening him up.

"What time is it?" He croaked.

"Two. You've just missed your first afternoon class."

He relaxed back on the bed when he felt his eyes dropping again. It was a long afternoon in the hospital wing for Remus. But when it came to eight Madam Pomphrey said that he could go to his classes tomorrow.

"At least this way you won't have missed a whole week," She muttered handing his water to him.

"A full week? What day is it?" He asked apprehensively.

"Thursday. You were out for a full day. Good thing too, I wouldn't have liked to have been awake when my lungs were still punctured either," She joked before leaving him to tend to another student.

He had been away for a full day. Two nights. There was no way that the others hadn't noticed his absence. He would have felt worried if the potion Pomphrey gave him wasn't to make him sleep.

He skipped breakfast, since he had his in the hospital wing, and instead journeyed up to his dorm to collect his books. The beds were all empty but his curtains were still drawn around his bed. Remus wondered if they had even checked to see if he was gone before walking to his first class.

"Why have you been avoiding us?" James asked at lunch.

"I haven't," Remus replied coolly.

"Then where have you been? You're were up before the rest of us and in bed when we came to the dorm. Sirius thought you were ill and went to get Pomphrey but she said that you'd been by earlier and went back off. What's going on?" He rushed piling his plate high with food.

"I-"

"So he's here is he?" Sirius demanded sitting next to James "Talking to us yet?" He said to James.

"Yep. He was about to tell me where he was yesterday before you interrupted," James glared back.

"Oh. So?" Sirius turned to Remus.

He thanked every star in the sky that Sirius hadn't opened his curtains. Explaining why he was skipping lessons was much easier than explaining an empty bed.

"I was checking some things for our prank. I had to make sure that my theory was right. Otherwise Carrow and Dolohov won't get blamed," He lied smoothly receiving appreciative and forgiving looks from the other two.

"Why didn't you invite us you moron," Sirius swiped at him playfully and hit a sore spot on his arm. He hoped that Sirius thought of the grimace was a feat of his manly strength.

"It would look suspicious if all of us were gone," He replied.

James pushed Sirius out of Remus' line of sight to eagerly ask "So? Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes. I'll tell you later." Peter came running in to join them. He made an excuse of being trapped by Slughorn in the dungeons because of his faulty potion before piling his plate as high as James'. "Did you three perfect the shield charm?" Remus inquired knowing that they wouldn't have waited for him.

"Yep," James piped "It's all done. We just need to pick our moment."

They all spoke excitedly of the plan throughout lunch and later when they were back in their dorm. Naturally James and Sirius wanted to perform the prank that night since it was raining again. Remus held firm though that they weren't to make a move until everything was set.

"Why?" Sirius whinged.

"We haven't gotten everything ready yet," Remus argued.

"But we have the spells perfected. What more is there?" James joined Sirius on the bed adding to his puppy dog looks.

"An alibi!" he said obviously "We're all going to have to practise our hexes tonight and tomorrow to get the spells off our wands," He explained and received questioning looks.

"You'll see why later just do it. Sirius I need you to practise duelling with me," Sirius cast a forlone look at James before going to stand with Remus. James and Peter just shrugged and went over to the corner to practise the hexes they had learnt at the weekend.

So for the rest of the night Remus and Sirius practised their duelling. Sirius was better than Remus since magic just came naturally to him. It was also apparent that duelling was drilled into him from somewhere. Remus could tell from his stances and technique that this wasn't something he just picked up. Even without a wand, someone had been teaching him these moves.

Remus' leg proved to be a problem too. Although Pomphrey had declared him good to go it still stung if he stayed on it too long. With all the moving around that they were doing he soon found his leg stinging as soon as he put the slightest bit of weight on it.

"Are you okay?" James asked having caught Remus' last grimace when he dodged a full body bind.

"Fine."

James and Sirius shared a look over his head. "Maybe we should stop for the night. It's getting kind of late," Sirius suggested and put a yawn in for emphasis.

He was more than happy to agree. Jumping into bed and pulling his quilt up to his face, Remus spared one last look at the waxing moon that shone in through their window before drawing his curtains on it for another month.

The next day way Friday. This meant that they had double History of Magic with the Slytherins to look forward to. All the way through Defence against the Dark Arts he couldn't help casting his gaze outside to will the sun to move faster. By the end he was bouncing more than he had on Tuesday. James cast him amused looks as they walked to History of Magic and Remus knew that he was going to make some remark about him being hyper again so Remus pulled Sirius to a stop and shooed the other two on ahead.

He had made sure that Carrow and Dolohov were in front of them so he wouldn't be ambushed by them and Professor Binns for the past two weeks had made them stand outside until he remembered he had a class so there was no need to fear being late.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked with a smile.

"We need to duel with Carrow and Dolohov. Which one do you want?"

Sirius' eyes had widened. "What?" He squeaked.

"Which one do you want? I don't care for either so I thought you should pick," Remus explained casting a look around the corner at them.

"Why do we need to duel with them?" Sirius pulled him back. Hissing nervously.

"Do you want to pull the prank off?" he reluctantly nodded "Then we need to do this. Don't worry we'll wait until after class but I thought it better for you to choose now so we can prepare ourselves."

"Oh. Can't James do it?" He asked twisting his neck to peer around at the scraggly haired boy.

"No. You're the one with the most experience. James knows some spells but I'm afraid that he'll go over the top and not know when to stop. You're perfect for this," He complimented "Besides I would have thought you'd be itching to have another go at the Slytherins. You always call them. Don't tell me your barks worse than your bite?" He knew he was baiting Sirius but it seemed like the only way to motivate him. He seemed so on board with their prank that Remus didn't see what problem he had with duelling with two first years.

"Fine," He agreed.

"You have to win. So come up with a strategy that will ensure your victory. Make it short, we don't want to attract any teachers," He warned before hauling Sirius towards the open doorway James had just disappeared through.

Sirius was shaking all the way through the firs hour of History of Magic. Shooting looks at Carrow which Remus took to mean he was going for him. Which meant that Dolohov was Remus'.

After class instead of following James and Peter to the hall for lunch Remus towed Sirius after the Dolohov and Carrow who were heading towards the courtyard. They waited, following at a slow pace behind the two before they came to an empty enough hallway.

"Hey!" Remus shouted. They turned, stopping to glare and pull out their wands. "I thought we could finally settle this," Remus continued "Without teachers being involved. It was a cowardly move to even go to them in the first place. But I guess that's what makes you Slytheirns."

"Don't bother antagonizing them Rem. They probably wont even agree to a duel," Sirius joined. "They're probably scared in case you make them grow horns again," He laughed.

"That was a lucky shot!" Carrow bellowed striding forward "It wont happen again."

Dolohov wasn't far behind Carrow and soon they were all standing with their wands drawn. Sirius was tense beside him but Remus knew that they had to win so someone had to make the first move. It was Carrow. He flung an impulsive Expelliarmus at Sirius who, used to James' constant attack with this spell, dodged easily and countered with a full body bind. Remus was quick to end his also and once he had deflected a stinging hex he knew the older students had taught him had Dolohov on the ground next to Carrow.

It lasted less than a minute but Sirius was whooping for joy. Remus countered their curses before dragging a gloating Sirius away from the recovering first years.

"Last night," Sirius panted up the stairs next to him "When you had me and you duelling. Was that for this?"

"Yes. I knew that you would be able to defeat one of them. I just needed to get good enough to defeat the other."

Sirius said the password to the common room and stepped through, racing to the dorm to tell James about his first duel.

"Why did you need to defeat them anyway?" James asked once Sirius had finished his speech.

"We need their wands," Remus replied getting his books for their afternoon classes. He didn't reveal anything else. Not trusting them with the truth until the prank was over.

"It's unfair how much you don't trust us," Sirius whined.

"No it isn't. I'm making sure that we don't get caught. If I told you everything now you could get caught tonight and be questioned. Better to know a little and have some plausible deniability," Remus waved off.

The rest of the day breezed by now that the hard part of their prank was over and soon it was dark in the dorms. The time had come for them to pull off their grand scheme. The clouds had gathered dark outside and threatened to pour for days on end. Meaning that the sky in the hall would be cloudy and rainy too. Remus couldn't have thought of a better day.

"The time has come," Remus announced "We go to the Slytherin dorms first before the hall and after that one of us will have to stand guard."

"Peter," Sirius volunteered.

"Aw. Do I have to?" He whined as they moved to the common room.

"Yes," James agreed pushing him through the portrait hall.

"Don't make too much noise. Sirius and I made that mistake last week," Remus whispered back.

Remus and Sirius had taken the lead. Sirius couldn't hold his giggles in through and continuously looked back to share a snigger with James. Peter kept looking around worriedly and jumped at every little thing that flickered.

When they came to the main entrance Sirius motioned for Peter to stay with him on guard while James and Remus entered into the tunnel. Sirius had taught them both the knock to get into the tunnel and Remus hoped that it was the same for getting out. He had reassured that James knew just as much as him so they wouldn't be completely stuck if things didn't work.

"How much further?" James asked from behind. Remus was busy feeling his way across but could feel a warm breeze coming from ahead.

"Not much. We're going to have to be quiet," Remus whispered back before pulling James in front.

The knock to get in was the same much to their luck and James stuck his head out a little before grabbing Remus and moving to the end of the hallway. He took the lead and went towards the boys dormitory glancing back to tell James that he needed to keep an ear on anyone still awake or approaching behind them.

Remus put his ear to the door of the first years dorm and listened for any movement. Nothing but heavy breathing and a nasally snore drifted towards his ear so he tried the handle. Much the same as before he kept low and to the sides of their beds while being careful to not disturb the curtains surrounding the boys beds.

James came in behind him and Remus pointed at Dolohov's bed before moving to Carrows. He had left his wand on the table situated next to his bed which made the theft that much easier for Remus. He looked over and received a thumbs up from James before he crept back over to Remus' side.

Again he listened at the door for anyone before he moved out. No one was there but still they didn't try breathing normally until they were safely inside their secret passage.

"That, was intense," James chuckled nervously. Remus joined him and they both made their way back to Peter and Sirius.

Remus handed off the wand to Sirius when they climbed out before taking the one from James. They replaced the stone and made their way to the great hall deciding teams while they went. Naturally James wanted to pair off with Sirius, to which Remus had no objection. It would mean that he would be stuck with Peter but he was mostly on guard duty for them.

"Sirius, don't use your own wand. You won a duel with Carrow so his should work. Make sure that's the only one you use. James don't even use yours," Remus ordered before taking Peter to the side of the hall.

He was in charge of the shield charm which had to go up after Sirius had charmed the ceiling. James was there to make sure that he got the spell right and if anything went wrong use his own wand to complete the prank.

While he waited he tested out Dolohov's wand on some candles. He breathed a sigh of relief when the candles floated after a bit of hesitancy and felt proud that he was right about his theory.

"Remus!" He heard and turned to see James give another thumbs up. He got to work.

The shield charm was to keep the water from cascading down earlier than necessary. They had found one that would open partially to a specific target and this was the one that they were using. It was difficult to get the wandwork right and to make it so that it would only rain on the seventh year prefect and Slughorn himself. The way Remus looked at it not only would they have an enemy in their own house to contend with but they would be caught red handed for this prank by Slughorn. He's going to have no choice but to punish them tomorrow.

Remus finished in two minutes and ran towards Peter with the other two scampering behind. It was getting closer to daylight. They ran back to the loose stone and once again hauled it up so that Remus and James could go to the Slytherin dorms. This time they were returning the wands and again they met no one there or back.

Once they were back out they raced back to the common room. Remus was pretty sure he heard Peter mumbling to the stairs to get a move on as they rotated around the castle. Soon they were back in their beds and Peter collapsed on top of his with a mournful sigh.

Remus felt much like he had when he pulled off his first prank of those two boys, tired and satisfied. James and Sirius on the other hand were jumping on their beds screeching and cheering at each other for how smart they were.

"The best ever! I'm always going to remember this!" James said in a pitch only dogs should be able to hear.

"Same! This night. This night right here is the night where it all begins!" Sirius shouted back abandoning his bed to tackle James "The night we finally start our Hogwarts careers."

"Best pranksters Hogwarts has ever seen. All of us will go down in history!" James bellowed from beneath Sirius' arm.

Remus smiled fondly at them taking his pyjamas into the bathroom while the others were celebrating. He couldn't help but keep smiling as he heard the noise that they were making through the door. But then it stopped. When he got out Sirius and James were standing above a frightened Peter.

"What's going on?" He asked not liking the looks on their faces.

"We're tying up loose ends," James replied coming over and dragging Remus to stand with them. They were all in a square facing each other.

"It's come to our attention that we might not be as safe as we thought. After all guilt does funny things to someone," Sirius explained nonchalantly

"You can't be serious?" Remus sighed.

"Oh I'm very serious. In fact I'm so serious that my mother couldn't help but name me it," No one laughed at the pathetic joke.

"I'm not going to tell anyone," Remus reassured "Half of this was my idea anyway."

"True," James agreed "But that doesn't mean that others won't tell of what transpired here tonight," He gazed pointedly at Peter.

"I wouldn't," He whimpered.

"Really?" James asked "Then swear it," He held his hand out "Solemnly swear, all of you, that what happened here tonight stays between us. For the next seven years the secrets that we tell and plans we make never leave this group."

"I swear," Peter groaned out and shook James' hand timidly.

"I swear," Sirius smirked clasping the joined hands.

"I swear," Remus sighed and placed his hand on top of Sirius' after they all cast waiting gazes his way.

"Well boys," James announced "I think this is the start of a wonderful friendship."


	3. Chapter 3

They only managed two hours of sleep since James kept waking up and bothering each of them. They eventually decided to wait the night out and catch some sleep after breakfast. Eventually they drifted down to the hall and found to be the first ones there. Despite their protesting stomachs James had them fasting so they could stay in the hall longer. He gave in when the toast popped up and said that they should eat one at a time.

"Yes because one of us eating isn't odd at all," the sarcasm dripped out of Sirius' mouth.

"Well sitting here long after we've all eaten is even more suspicious so shut up," James snapped back.

"Can I go first at least," Peter whined earning death glares from the rest of the table.

"Sirius can eat first since there's nothing but toast," James announced earning Sirius' good graces back.

"Thank you," He smirked before piling his plate high with bread.

Ten uncomfortable minutes passed where Remus contemplated turning as cannibalistic as his canine counterpart if the meat- or Sirius- didn't hurry up. It didn't help matters that Sirius drew out his treasured breakfast with exaggerated moans complete with licking his fingers. He almost wept with joy when the first students began entering the hall followed by bacon and sausages littering the table. Remus employed his most sincere puppy dog eyes to James after that. James broke within seconds and let Remus enjoy his breakfast along with Sirius. Before any arguments happened Remus fed Peter on the sly.

It was almost an hour since they had arrived. Peter told them they should have waited longer since it was a Saturday. Most students wouldn't be up until noon. James didn't listen to the complaints and responded that the teachers and prefects should be up early since they had other jobs to do on weekends. Peter was about to respond but Sirius' whacked him upside the head and shushed. They all followed his line of sight to see Slughorn and the prefect enter the hall. They were talking jovially before they broke off to take their respective seats.

James had started jumping in his seat again. Anticipation was building and he sent Peter twice to look out the hall to see if Dolohov and Carrow were coming yet. He came back with a negative before ignoring James' earlier rule and digging into his meal. Ten minutes and Remus thinking of ways to drown James in the lake they entered the hall.

One minute they were walking in and the next two shrieks met Remus' ears. He turned to see the water charm that they had done the night before rain heavily onto Slughorn and the Prefect. Students squealed with shock before realising that it wasn't happening to them and either laughed or got back to their meal. Slughorn had buried himself under the table to escape the onslaught of water whilst the prefect kept moaning about his hair and looked for something to try and shade it from the rain. The two first years seemed frozen as they watched the prefect turn to them and they quickly ran out of the hall.

The spell Remus had chosen for the shield went off as soon as the wands were out of range and it seemed that the prefect had noticed this as well since he stalked off in a fit of rage after them. Slughorn called for someone to get Flitwick who arrived followed by the retrieved boys.

A confrontation was inevitable when the rain started up again. Flitwick managed to find the source of their prank and have it sorted out after five minutes of torrential rain. By the end of the fiasco their robes were soaking and the four boys couldn't laugh hard enough.

"I knew they weren't sorry professor. They have no respect for authority, it's just like the trunk incident all over again," The prefect complained.

"Indeed," Slughorn narrowed his eyes onto the two cowering boys.

Dolohov's eyes averted when Carrow tried to plea their innocence "We swear, we don't even know how to do something like this.

"It is quite remarkable spellwork for first years," Flitwick observed.

"But not impossible for them to do," Slughorn added.

Dolohov caught them laughing at their table "You!" He shouted "It was them professor! They did it! We had nothing to do with it! Ask Snape, we were in our beds all night! They're the ones that have been learning magic not on the curriculum!" He argued and Slughorn beckoned the four boys over.

Remus reigned in his smirk and knew the others were wearing sombre expressions thinking they had been found out.

"Well boys? Did you have a hand in this? After all I do remember a certain horn hex being cast just last week," Slughorn asked. He seemed more certain that they had done it than Carrow and Dolohov and despite it having been him, Remus felt annoyed. He had been given enough evidence and still he would choose his own house and pathetic Slug Club over upsetting one of his own.

"It wasn't us sir," Remus replied. "In fact you can check my wand. I swear I haven't used charms like that," He lied and handed his wand over with the others doing the same.

Sirius gave him a friendly nudge when he figured out why they had to go to all that trouble for a simple prank. Slughorn tested the wands and came up negative. He handed them back with an apology for James and Sirius but none for Remus and Peter then turned to the other two boys with his hand outstretched. They handed their wands over willingly and Remus had to, once again, repress a satisfied smirk when their wands revealed the spells Remus and Sirius had cast the night before.

"It wasn't us," Carrow argued hollowly being lead away by the prefect and Slughorn in shock at what his wand had revealed.

As soon as they rounded the corner the four boys burst into laughing again. "Did you see their faces?" James squawked pointing towards where they had just left.

"Lucius was all like, ahh my hair!" Sirius mocked reaching for his own black locks in imitation.

"And the look on those two's faces! Hah!" James held his stomach from laughing so much "Brilliant work Remus. I actually had my doubts but that was genius."

They spent the rest of the day reliving their victory over the Slytherins. Having commandeered a chair in the common room Remus lay curled up whilst the other three sprawled out on the floor in merriment.

It seemed that what was later dubbed as 'the first prank' had been a dam. This dam had broken and Remus couldn't tell if it was his fault or whether it had faulty wood to begin with. Whatever had been presented as Sirius and James in their first two weeks was nothing compared to what happened when that dam broke. They had lost all boundaries, no longer did they fear punishment or feel hesitant when sneaking out. Remus almost missed the first two weeks.

After the first prank there was the second, which essentially was James and Sirius casting the raining charm on anyone wearing green or annoyed them. This happened for a week and they both got detentions for it. The teachers had figured out that they were behind the first prank as well, although whether they suspected Remus and Peter helping was beyond his knowledge. Nevertheless they didn't get punished for it because the punishment had already been doled out. Instead Slughorn targeted them for every misdeed they did. Sure some of it was them such as the Halloween prank where they placed polyjuice potion in random people's drinks making them all into Dumbledore. But they even got blamed for things that they had nothing to do with. Such as the fact that they had found a muggle born witch lying unconscious at the bottom of the stairwell, Slughorn had taken one look and given them both a detention. Unjustified in Remus' opinion since he knew it was the self righteous pure-bloods in his own house that were behind it.

Needless to say the months leading to December were filled with James and Sirius. But that was when things got weird. Two weeks until the Christmas holidays and not a single prank had been made. Remus would sit at night and wonder what was keeping him up before realising that it was the silence in the room. For the past three months he had heard nothing but whispered conversations or celebratory shouts emerging from the space between the beds. But as soon as December hit, nothing. Instead there was the sound of Sirius tossing and turning in his bed.

"Are you going home for Christmas?" Remus asked over breakfast.

Sirius glanced up from his dismembered toast "Afraid so. What about you?"

"I'm staying," Remus replied thinking about the pale moon that would almost be full on Christmas day.

"You'll be the only one then. James and Peter are going home too. Apparently there's nothing like a Potter Christmas according to James," Sirius spoke in a falsetto making Remus laugh.

"Sounds dreadful," He joked.

"What does?" James asked sitting down next to Sirius.

"You mate," Sirius quipped pulling James into a headlock. He squirmed and complained about his beautiful hair and tried to right it when Sirius let him go.

"James, I'm going to save you the trouble now. It's not worth it. I don't think it ever will be salvageable," Remus spoke pointing to James' nest on his head.

James pouted before giving up "Remus is staying for Christmas," Sirius told him.

"Aw! Wish I was," he whined.

"But you said-"

"I know but dad says that Hogwarts is so cool at Christmas. It's too late now though," He stropped "You should have told me sooner Remus."

"Sorry," He smirked "Look on the bright-side though, this way you can both have time apart to plan individual pranks. When you come back together there'll be enough material to last until easter," he consoled and watched as their faces got that scheming look.

"He's right you know," Peter announced sliding onto the bench next to Remus "And Remus can look up more spells for our duelling club without us distracting him."

The rest of the conversation left them excited about when they met back up again after Christmas. It seemed rather odd to Remus that they hadn't even broke up yet and he was yearning for them back.

That night he couldn't get to sleep again and thanked Merlin (an expression he had picked up from James) that it was a Saturday tomorrow or today depending on the time. Sirius was once again tossing in his bed. Remus listened to the repetitive motions in his mind having timed them for the past two hours. First Sirius would turn on his side then shove the blanket down to his feet before turning onto his back. He then pushed the quilt off the bed entirely before deciding to pick it back up after two minutes of rolling in his bed.

By the third hour Remus had decided to do something about it. James and Peter's curtains were drawn as he made his way over to the closed bed nearest the door.

Sirius looked alarmed when he stepped through his curtains and climbed onto the bed with him but didn't say anything. Remus picked up Sirius's quilt from the floor and pulled it over both of them before turning on his side and trying to get to sleep again.

"I'm okay," Sirius whispered.

"Hmm," Remus hummed in response knowing that it was useless to get someone to talk about something if they didn't want to. It would be hypocritical for him to ask Sirius to open up when he was no better.

"Really I am. You didn't need to do this," Sirius pressed.

"Yes I did. Your tossing was keeping me awake," Remus murmured into Sirius' pillow.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Go to sleep," Was all he said before drifting off himself.

He woke to a hand running lightly across his stomach. It was a pleasant sensation which kept him relaxed in half consciousness. He remembered the night before when he had climbed into bed with Sirius in the hopes that it would get him to stop wriggling and figured that it must be him.

He opened his eyes and took in the dark curtains devoid of any light at this part of the room. The red was still maroon sinking into black the further it went into the corners. Sirius was lying perched on one arm staring at something on Remus' stomach. He knew he should be doing something but couldn't think what or why.

"Morning," he mumbled instead causing Sirius' head to snap up and the hand to still on his exposed stomach.

"Hey," Sirius squeaked trying to remove his hand and pull down Remus' shirt as he did.

He glanced down and saw jagged marks criss crossing across his abdomen and bolted away from Sirius. Accidentally knocking on James' bed and waking the boy from his sleep. Sirius looked scared before he got up and reached for Remus.

He flinched which made Sirius' face fall but didn't deter him in his quest to get to Remus. He hauled Remus up by his arms and pulled him into the bathroom making sure to lock the door behind him.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," He apologised to Remus and tried to get him from bolting "I swear I didn't mean to see them. Your shirt was pulled up and they were just there! I promise that it wasn't on purpose," He pleaded.

Remus paced. Sirius had saw them, he couldn't let him know. So what was there to do? "I believe you," He said waving away Sirius' apologies.

There was another silence on the room like the one in the dorm before Remus bolted. "Who did those to you?" Sirius whispered with his eyes full of concern.

"I doesn't matter," he snapped wishing the boy would give him some time to think.

"Remus someone hurt you! One would be an accident but there was tonnes. I saw them on your arms as well," Remus glared for another privacy stolen from him. Sirius had looked further then. He caught the heated look Remus sent him "I just wanted to know how many more you had. If it was just in one place. Remus, you can tell me anything you know that right?"

"What's that meant to mean?" he asked horrified.

"It means that whoever did that to you or whatever happened... you can tell me. I won't judge you, I want to help," Sirius comforted and tried to move forward and embrace Remus.

He pulled back sharply "Really? Well what about you?" He asked trying to change the conversation to him. "Last night you wouldn't tell me what was wrong. And I know there's something Sirius, there's been no pranks this month and you've been restless for almost a week now."

"That's not fair!" Sirius argued "We're talking about you! My problems don't come into this."

"So there is something?" Remus deflected.

"Stop changing it to me! I'm not the one with scars all over him!" he backed away until his back hit the tiled wall. Sirius could see that he had said something wrong. "Rem- Remus I didn't mean that... What I'm trying to say is-" He stuttered not knowing how to right his wrong.

"Please stop," Remus muttered "Stop. Just leave it. Don't ask anymore. Please?"

"But..." Sirius sat on the floor and put his head in his hands. Remus walked past him to the door.

James and Peter were standing on the other side with their ears to the wall trying to listen in. "You can go in now. I'm going to go back to bed for a while," he told them before drawing his curtains except the one that faced the window. The sun was shining in his bed, reminding him that his scars didn't mean anything yet.

Sirius didn't approach Remus about his scars again that month. It seemed that whatever problem he was having outweighed the curiosity over Remus' scars. There was only one week left before Christmas and while the other students were euphoric about seeing their families again Sirius just seemed to be getting more miserable.

"I'm going to the library, do you want to come?" Remus asked him. Sirius looked up gratefully and extracted his arm from James in their half hearted wresting match.

They had been spending more time together since Sirius had discovered his scars. It amused Remus a little that Sirius thought he would get another one if Remus was let out of his sight for a couple of minutes. He wondered how he would react if he knew that only some of them were from other things or people when he tripped or banged into something when he was younger.

"I'm looking up defensive spells. After all the hexes we've learnt I thought it about time that we learnt some," He explained picking up a couple of books and shoving them onto Sirius' waiting arms.

"That's nice," Sirius replied distantly.

They found a table near the back of the library that hid between two shelves. It was out of Pince's sight so they could talk all they liked. Remus started searching in the books he picked up. He avoided looking at the pages on werewolves despite his curiosity telling him to take a look.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"No, I'm an only child," Remus answered after a pause. "What about you?"

"Little brother. He'll be coming here in a couple of years." Was all he said about him.

"That'll be nice," he smiled.

Sirius snorted before picking up one of the books Remus had chosen. He didn't press the subject and got back to his reading when it was apparent that Sirius wasn't going to indulge any more information. He found an interesting spell that could deflect dementors and wrote down the patronus charm before checking the side effects and how to actually perform the spell.

"What are your parents like?" Came another question.

"Nice," he said "They do their best... It isn't always easy. My mother's a muggle and she isn't used to all this magic. Dad doesn't really use all that much in the house so coming here was kind of a shock," he explained. Sirius' interest had been piqued at the mention of muggles but he seemed reluctant to ask about them.

Instead he went for the safer option of Remus' father "So what does your dad do?"

"We live on a farm. Mum and Dad both get up early and tend to the animals and the vegetables when needed. It's tiring but they enjoy it."

"So he doesn't use magic to help on the farm?" Sirius asked shocked.

"No. Mum calls it cheating so Dad reluctantly put his wand away and did things the muggle way," He cheered and enjoyed the confused faces that Sirius made.

"Why did he give up his wand to go work on a farm?" As if the concept was new to him.

"He didn't always work there. We actually moved onto the farm when I was eight. Dad worked in the ministry until I was six and after that we spent two years travelling before settling down on the farm. Besides even if he did work at the ministry still, Mum would have him hang up his wand as soon as he came home. He would do it too, he really loves my mum," Remus sighed and wished he was going home for Christmas.

"So why are you staying here? If I had parents like that I would go home straight away," Sirius observed.

Remus shrugged "I just want to stay here more," He said thinking about the other darker times. When he would be left in the barn or the cellar until noon because of the weather. Or even because his parents hadn't the stomach to check whether he was still alive until they had tended to the animals. The things that would actually make them money, wouldn't try and kill them if it had a chance.

Sirius didn't know that though and just hummed before moving the conversation onto the betting pool the boys had on James' Christmas presents. Remus had that they would get him some latest pranking gear whilst Sirius was adamant about a broom.

"The boys obsessed!" He whispered in shock. Remus grinned and shoved at Sirius playfully.

"So are you."

"True," He agreed.

Remus called it a day after two hours spent in the library. Sirius' spirits seemed lifted for the moment but that always happened when he had something to distract him. James soon had him in another wrestling match not long after they stepped into the common room so Remus left them to play gobstones with Peter.

Sirius was tossing in his bed again that night. Remus once again made his way over to Sirius' bed. Just like that first night he seemed surprised that Remus had came over to him and probably even more after what happened the last time.

"Move over," Remus nudged and climbed in next to him. "You're keeping me up again."

"Sorry," he whispered like the first night.

It was on the last three days of term that Remus got some pieces of the puzzle revealed. He wished that he hadn't though.

They were walking back to the common room alone from the great hall. James and Peter were both stuck in detention, it seemed that since Sirius had given up pranking James decided to take on an apprentice. They were nearing the first staircase that would put them on the track to the Gryffindor portrait when a spell hit Sirius straight in the back.

He doubled over and Remus crouched down to check that he was alright before turning to their attackers. Lucius the prefect they had drowned and some other Slytherins were haughtily making their way down the corridor towards them.

Sirius moaned getting Remus' attention again. He tried hauling Sirius to his feet but he had been hit with a full body bind leaving movement very hard. He was just about to try and pick Sirius up when he found himself staring at the end of a wand.

"Leave him half-blood and go back to your common room," Lucius sneered tapping Remus on the face with his wand.

He didn't and scowled back at him "Just because you have no sense of loyalty," he snapped before drawing his own out.

He expected the disarming spell and countered with a jelly legs jinx before trying to move Sirius again. That was when he felt his own body go numb with another full body bind. One of Lucius' lackeys had hit him whilst the blonde recovered from his wobbly legs.

They quickly countered Lucius' jinx before doing what they were ordered and picking Sirius up. Naturally Remus was left there. Alone, just like the first week he was here, and he couldn't help feeling mad again at those stupid pure-bloods.

He was stuck there for ten minutes wondering what kind of torture they had in store for Sirius. He couldn't guess why they were angry at him though since James and Sirius hadn't actually attacked anyone from Slytherin after the first prank. It seemed that the green snakes were the one house that were protected from Sirius and James' cruelty if you didn't include Snape.

His legs and arms relaxed as a familiar voice reached his static head. He turned into those silver eyes and checked mercilessly for any spell or injury that Sirius could have on him. He looked same as he always was if not a bit frightened and looking more worried about Remus than himself.

"I'm fine!" he reassured brushing Sirius' questioning hands away "What about you. You're the one they hauled off."

"I'm fine," Sirius repeated "They just wanted a talk. Lucius didn't expect a fight so he was a bit angrier than usual but that's all."

He wasn't telling Remus everything but he seemed okay. He knew he had no right to ask those questions anyway. Not if he wasn't able to give up his own secrets. So it seemed that a pact had been made in those two moments between them. Sirius didn't indulge Remus on the way back to the tower about what happened just as Remus didn't about his scars last week.

They split off into their respective inner group within the four boys as soon as James and Peter got back from detention. Remus was glad to have someone to break the silence with and happily joined Peter in a game of exploding snap. He kept looking over to where James and Sirius were talking on James' bed but made sure to do so when he knew they were busy with each other. They were laughing so Remus could only assume that he hadn't told James what had happened.

A bang caught his ear and he turned laughing at Peter when one of his eyebrows and his fringe singed its way back into his skin. Two chuckles sounded behind him as he led the poor boy to the bathroom to clean up.

"Don't worry it'll grow back," He laughed.

"But my good looks will be gone!" Peter wailed melodramatically reminding Remus more of James than himself.

"What looks. We're first years, no girl will be looking until at least third. You're safe," He consoled going back to his trunk to try and find a hair growing spell.

"But they'll remember. Not to mention laugh when I go out there now," He kept checking his bald eyebrow in the mirror.

"Well, I have good news then."

"You know a spell that'll grow it back?" He asked eagerly.

"There's one here. But there's bad news too Peter so don't look too excited," He warned.

"What could be bad about a hair growing spell?"

"Apart from the fact I haven't cast one before?" He replied sceptically "Well there's also the possibility that it could grow and keep growing until you have a mountain man mane of hair. The way I see it is that we'll have to go see Pomphrey if you want an easy fix," he told Peter trying to keep himself from laughing at the boys heartbroken expression. No one liked going to the hospital wing.

"I say use the spell!" James called from his bed "Better yet, give me it! We can test it on Peter and use it on Snape tomorrow," He cackled.

Remus sighed before turning back to Peter "You're choice Pete. Quick fix or three days of humiliation before we break up for Christmas."

"Oh Merlin Christmas! I'd forgotten about that!" And lamented all the way to the hospital wing how his parents would keep photos of his baldness for years.

Pomphrey was able to reverse the baldness within seconds since this wasn't the first exploding snap incident she had witnessed. Remus had to reassure Peter on the way back up to the common room that hardly anyone saw him but it didn't do to quell the boys nerves as he walked past the older students in front of the fire.

"Aw!" James moaned when they returned "I wanted to get a picture," He stomped and put his camera back in his trunk.

"How long have you had a camera?" Remus asked thinking back on the past four months. Not once had he seen or heard of any camera.

"Ages. Mum gave it to me so I could take pictures of all the friends I've made," he explained falling on his back on his bed.

"So how come we haven't had ours taken?" Sirius asked from the bathroom.

"Well I thought about it but you lot aren't exactly photogenic at the best of times," He knew it was a joke and watched in amusement as Sirius abandoned brushing his teeth in favour of jumping onto James.

"Not photogenic? How dare you Potter. I'll have you know that the Black's take nothing but exceptional photos," He chided whilst smushing James' laughing face in a pillow.

"Fine it's the other two ugly mugs that'll ruin it," he laughed trying to push Sirius off. He didn't need to though since Sirius had stopped and sat frozen on James. "Sirius?" James had noticed the lack of response too.

"Take that back James," He said lowly "Now."

"I was having a laugh Sirius what's gotten into you?" James defended not knowing what he had done.

"Apologise James," he growled back.

"What for?" he asked.

Sirius pushed himself off and stalked over to his bed, glaring as he went. He spent the rest of the night giving death glares to James and wouldn't explain why he was angry. Remus guessed that maybe something James had said triggered what Lucius had said earlier. It would make sense for the older boy to make Sirius' unhappy- he sure made Remus. But it didn't connect with what James had actually said.

Remus made another trip to Sirius' bed that night. It was beginning to become a habit. The boy was kicking harshly at the blankets when Remus climbed in and folded himself up small when he settled down next to Sirius.

"James didn't mean it. He was just joking," he whispered.

"Maybe," Sirius replied casting his sad eyes on Remus "Still doesn't make it right what he said."

"What did he say? I don't understand what offended you."

"When he made that comment, you know, about how you're not photogenic," Sirius said and glanced down to Remus' covered stomach. He pulled his shirt down a little more when it became apparent what had Sirius so riled up.

"He doesn't know so you don't have to defend me," He snapped.

"I know, but still..." He trailed.

They lay in silence for a while drifting in the dark haze that the room descended upon them. Remus pulled the blanket up higher to escape the chill of the room. No heating and the fire out meant that it was freezing outside of the blankets.

"I don't want to go home," Sirius muttered making Remus snap his eyes open.

"Then don't," He answered simply.

"It's not as easy as that," he pouted.

"Sirius no one can force you home for Christmas. Just say that you want to spend your first Christmas here, apparently it's great," He tried smiling for Sirius but received nothing but a lost look in return.

"I know. Mum would never let me though. No doubt this year she wants to try and reform me. Make sure that Gryffindor hasn't tainted my outlook on the world. Merlin knows what she'll do when Lucius tells her I've made friends with half-bloods." he shivered violently.

"What does Lucius have to do with this?" Remus reluctantly asked. He didn't want to press more than Sirius was willing to give.

"He's her little spy. Everything I've done in school he reports back to her. He's trying to get in her good books you see since she's the one with the power in the family. Used to be my aunt since she's older but mum married a better bloke so she's the matriarch now. He's probably hoping that she'll let him join the bloodlines again."

"Again?" Remus wasn't new to the wizarding world. He had heard of pure-bloods marrying within the bloodlines but he never thought that he would encounter people willing to do so. It was always something that was told and never shown to him.

"I think he's my second cousin. I'm not sure," Sirius said distractedly "But no doubt he'll tell her all about you."

"Don't go home," Remus begged. Something about Sirius' gaze told him that it wasn't just a telling off he would be getting when he got home.

"Have to," he shivered again and Remus saw his eyes welling up.

"We'll think of something when you get back," was the only comfort Remus could think to give.

The last two days were filled with half hearted classes with teachers who were looking forward to the break from lessons as much as the students. McGonagall had them transfiguring baubles from leaves that had fallen to the ground. She hung the successful ones happily from the door to the classroom before shooing them off to their potions lesson. Slughorn seemed to be in good spirits too since he had them reading for both lessons that were left. He mentioned that the work they didn't get done in the classroom would be for homework but didn't dissuade them fully from their discussions.

Sirius and James were taking the lack of work in their stride. James kept charming snow balls to appear and splatter random students as they walked the corridors and whilst Sirius wasn't himself he still smiled whenever one of them hit their target.

Soon the last day had come. Remus watched amused at the foot of his bed as Peter tried to stuff all his things into his trunk.

"I don't know why it isn't going in!" He exclaimed with a push to the top "It all fit when I came here so why not now," A shirt fell out the side.

Remus only laughed and turned to watch the other two. James kept secretly spelling Peter's stuff to grow bigger which was the reason it wasn't fitting in his trunk. Sirius on the other hand had kept his curtains shut all morning. Remus was pretty sure he was crying ten minutes ago but hadn't went to check in case James or Peter saw him. It was bad enough one person knowing without the whole dorm.

"I hope you don't get up to much mischief without us Rem," James called coming to lounge next to him.

"Without you? Perish the thought," He mocked.

"Ooh he's getting cocky." Remus shoved him off his bed. "Sirius," James called knocking on his bedpost "The train will be leaving soon. Are you going to come out?"

"Leave him James," Remus warned "He wants a couple of minutes more sleep before facing you two on the train," he lightened.

"Seriously though Rem, you were a nice boy at the beginning of the year. What happened?" James joked "What happened to him?"

"You did," He replied and shrunk all of Peter's things at once making the poor boy collapse and fall off his trunk. They both burst into laughter at the sight.

Peter only moaned that he should have thought of that before students started sounding beyond their door.

"That'll be your escort," Remus told them getting up and moving Sirius' curtains aside "Are you hiding or going home?" he asked quietly.

Sirius was curled in a ball at the top of the bed staring straight at him "Home."

"You're a true Gryffindor," Remus told him and handed Sirius his trunk.

They all shook hands with Remus before making their way to the train in Hogsmeade. The room was so quiet and big without the other three in that Remus didn't know what to do with himself until tea in the great hall.

Even that was disconcerting. The only other first years he knew to stay were Lily and the surly Snape boy. She was just as nice as when Remus first met her and he knew she was excellent at magic. First in potions and charms, not to mention she had gained access to Slughorns slug club in a matter of weeks. It seemed that Slughorn really had the eye for greatness if his judge of Lily was anything to go by.

"What made you stay then?" She asked curiously as he piled his plate high.

"I wanted to," he shrugged "What about you?"

She grimaced a bit "My sister's a bit sore that I came here and she didn't so I thought it better to giver her more time to adjust. Not to mention that Severus is here. He actually asked if I would stay and I couldn't say no," he glanced at where the Snape boy was glaring daggers at him.

"I suppose," he agreed turning back to face her.

"Don't give me that look. It's not like the company you keep is much better," She snapped before moving down a couple of seats.

Remus couldn't think what he had done to offend her so he turned back to his food in the hopes that she would cool down as the days progressed. He didn't want to lonely for the whole Christmas.

The dorm was empty and Remus had nothing to do. He had finished his homework on the first day of the holidays and even read ahead in all of his subjects. He had looked up as many spells as he could think of and practised them in a routine that meant once he was finished there was nothing else to do. Then there was the fact that Lily refused to look at him. She spent all her time with Snape. They went for walks on the ground and even built a snowman which Remus is guilty of confessing he may have knocked down when they were in the castle. Cruel, he knows but the opportunity to do something was just staring him smugly in the face.

The ghosts had long grown tired of him. Nearly Headless Nick had passed him off to three older students and would conveniently vanish whenever Remus was near. The Bloody Baron took Nick's tactic of vanishing so Remus didn't even try and approach him.

He was actually contemplating lying in the snow for an hour before taking a bath when opportunity in the name of Peeves presented itself. Remus had heard all about the poltergeist, he was notorious throughout Hogwarts for making people's lives a misery. He hadn't actually met the ghost until something hit the back of his head. Hard.

He felt the back and came away with egg shells and yolk dripping between his fingers and a chuckling translucent figure hovering near the castle ceiling. He was threateningly holding a bowl of eggs that pretty soon became like bombs for Remus to avoid. He dove beneath one of the benches and watched as yolk smashed before his eyes.

"HEY!" A croaky voice shouted. No longer did the poltergeist laugh and when Remus came out from his hiding place he saw that the bowl of eggs had been abandoned near Remus' feet and the ghost was gone. "You there," He felt a grip on his arm and turned to face the caretaker Filch "Just what do you think you're doing? You think just because you're a first year that you can get away with stunts like this?" he gestured to the mess around him.

"It wasn't me," Remus defended when he found his voice "It was Peeves. He was the one dropping them on me."

"Oh yes, I've heard that excuse before. Right come with me," Filch growled picking up the bowl and dragging Remus towards McGonagalls office.

He knocked sternly and soon McGonagall was glaring at the pair of them. "What seems to be the problem?"

"I found this one egging the castle," Filch explained tugging Remus into McGonagalls sight.

"Is this true?"

"Got these off him," he handed the bowl with the eggs inside.

"It wasn't me professor. Peeves was there and he was throwing them at me. I got hit," He showed the drying egg in his hair to her.

McGonagall sent Filch away with a reprimand when he tried to install Remus' guilt further. She then told Remus to be more careful before sending him on his way with a heavy sigh. He didn't return to the common room and instead tried to tail Filch to his domain. They had been lucky so far in all their sneaking that the caretaker hadn't caught them. But James had said he had been close to catching them on more than one occasion.

Remus followed him down the twists of the hallways to a small office near the front entrance. A cat stalked out and rubbed itself along Filch's legs before setting down outside the office. He was shocked to see how close it was to the Slytherin's secret passageway and knew that they were going to have to be more careful when the term began again. He gazed at the office again before slowly backing away when the cat caught his eye.

Once again he as back to being bored. Christmas wasn't much fun with no one around and Remus was itching for something to do. He tried setting a chess board in front of Lily who played with him but didn't engage in any conversation he tried to make.

Eventually he did lie in the snow for half an hour but didn't go back in when he couldn't feel his toes. Instead he took in the other snowmen that had been erected on the Hogwarts grounds and decided to add his own to the lot.

It took him a few tries to get the location right but he eventually settled for outside of the Gryffindor tower. That way he could look at it from out of his window. He then set to work piling the snow for the bottom half. He was never satisfied though since he wanted to be able to spot it in the dark and figured a small one couldn't penetrate the night like a big one could. So the ball of snow began to steadily get bigger and bigger until it was twice the size of Remus. He stopped and put a sticking charm on the bottom half so it wouldn't move while Remus went around to the front to get more snow.

Five hours and two numb thumbs later Remus had made a snowman that stretched up to the Gryffindor common room. He had to enlarge the buttons he found for the eyes and mouth and figured that it could do without a nose. Satisfied with his work he went inside to see if he could spot it from his window. There was a crowd in the common room looking out the window when he came in.

"Oh cool, can you see it?" He asked squeezing his way through.

"See it? It's bloody massive!" A blonde boy said.

"That is definitely going to creep me out tonight," A girl giggled to her friend.

Remus could see the smiling face of his snowman staring in through the window. It was hard not to since it took up the whole scene. He raced up to his own dorm but was sad to report that only a distorted view could be seen from there.

It seemed that the snowman was good for one thing as Lily broke her silence that night to exclaim "Why would you make something that big?"

"Why not?" Remus replied "I had nothing to do and I wanted to see if I could spot it from my window. I probably should have moved it back a bit," He mumbled.

"You are so weird," she sighed before asking if he wanted to play chess with her.

Lily only spent the evenings in the common room and since Remus was sure that his presence wasn't welcome anywhere near Snape he kept clear when Lily invited him over to play with them. The snowman became the source for many spooky stories told in the common room at night. Remus would listen to them fondly and agree that in the firelight he did have an ominous look about him.

The days passed quicker after that until it was Christmas day. Excited footsteps running down the stairs woke him up and he soon joined them when he remembered what day it was. Five presents were waiting for him along with an assortment of letters.

The first one was from his parents sending their love. They also added a warning as if Remus forgot what time of the month it almost was. They had given him a new cloak along with a huge basket of chocolate that he liked. James had indeed gotten a broom for his present but apparently that wasn't the best one he got, he wouldn't go into detail but said that their next term would be nothing if not brilliant. More chocolate was found to be from the other three boys and Sirius wrote a cheerful letter about how things weren't that bad back home. He would have to wait until Sirius returned to judge whether that was true or not and turned to read about Peter's holidays with his parents. He made a whole paragraph about how glad he was to have his hair grown back since many pictures had been taken since his arrival. When Remus was chewing on some wizarding sweets and watching Lily open her presents he had to admit that going to Hogwarts was one of the best decisions of his life.

"That's nice," he commented referring to the new necklace Lily had gotten. He had been making similar remarks about the rest of her presents.

"I know, I didn't think Dad was listening when I told him I wanted it," she squealed before telling Remus to put it on her. He hissed when his skin touched the chain and pulled his hand back abruptly.

"Are you okay?" she asked worried trying to pull his hand to her.

"Fine," he grumbled before looking at the discarded necklace "What's that made of?"

"Er silver I think, why?"

"I'm allergic. It makes me come up in welts," He complained putting his hand in his mouth.

"Oh God I am so sorry," she apologised "I know what it's like. I'm allergic to dogs. One smell and I start sneezing," she ran upstairs to get a wet cloth for Remus' raised skin. He pressed it to his hand sighing in relief "Still silver is a weird thing to be allergic to."

"Not really. I know someone who's allergic to gold," he lied "and iron. Some metals just don't agree with people. Like soap," he continued knowing he got Lily from suspecting anything off.

"True."

The Christmas feast was something to behold. There was enough food to feed the entire school and since there was only a handful of students staying Remus' plate was overflowing. He didn't know how he made room for the chocolate cake but he did and even brought some up to the dorm to have later. By the end of the night both Remus and Lily were lying around the common room like barrels, too full to move and rolling to get from A to B.

Boxing day was just as bad since there was more food to be had and Remus stocked up heavily. His nerves were frittering again and he managed to work off the Christmas fat he was sure to have gained by rolling and running in the snow like a madman after eating.

He didn't know how much time had passed until McGonagall called him in and told him to make his way to the shack. He sighed but did as he was told, kicking snow as he went to starve off the need to run.

He made sure no one was around as he poked the knot in the tree and complained to himself the whole time he was in the tunnel about how Santa never gave him what he wanted for Christmas.

"I mean is a cure or something to make it easier too much to ask?" he lamented "It's not like I'm asking you to make me king, just work some of your magic to make my life easier. Or maybe you are and that's what I'm getting next year. If so, it had better be good." He pointed to no one and stowed his clothes away and resumed his pacing. "Or maybe that was meant to be my gift this year. Was I on the naughty list? Because those boys deserved it and you know it."

He would have continued had his legs not given way and his throat ripped in a feral scream. He felt his jaw snapping and his eyes pulling in on themselves. He shouldn't touch them, his hands would be claws and sure enough there was no energy left to pull himself up to a more comfortable position. He folded in on himself and screamed again before giving into that small space in the back of his mind that he waited in until morning.

He stayed in the hospital wing for two days before he was released back into the school. Keeping to the strict instructions laid down by Madame Pomphrey Remus did little more than lounge in the common room for the remainder of the holidays. His leg was severely torn at the ligaments meaning that he was to keep off it until he could move without it hurting. Needless to say Remus was very bored.

Never was he more happy to hear that the students would be returning in less than an hour. He tidied up the mess that had strewn from his side of the room to the rest of the dorm and waited bouncing on his bed in excitement for his friends to return.

James naturally made a scene when he came up. Loud and happy he pranced into the room with his arms laden with gifts he refused to let the house elves carry up and proceeded to hover the rest of the way over to Remus. He showed off either side before doing a catwalk twirl and setting it down.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"Magnificent," Remus complimented making James beam more "But highly impractical. What are you going to use it for Quidditch try-outs are next year." The beam turned into a pout.

"Well that's not the only thing I got but we're gonna have to wait until the others decide to get themselves UP HERE!" he shouted the last bit.

Peter came panting up the stairs with his trunk looking more heavy than it had when he left. He nodded a hello before catching his breath on his bed. Sirius was scowling when he came in and glared at Peter. He wasn't back for a day and already he had fought with the boy. Upon appearance he didn't look hurt but Remus wouldn't be sure until he had shed his robe.

"How was your Christmas?" Sirius asked sitting beside Remus. He cast a worried glance at him when Remus winced at his leg.

"Boring. I built a ten foot snowman that's been creeping people out. Got in trouble from Filch who by the way I know where his office is. I also got egged by Peeves destroyed a snowman and got ignored for the first week," He rambled and faced Sirius "How was yours."

The boy burst out laughing followed by James "That monstrosity downstairs is yours?" James cackled.

"I can't believe you class that as boring. You sound like you've had a brilliant time. I'm definitely staying next year!" Sirius decided.

"Same," James agreed followed by Peter.

"It wasn't all that exciting. I would have preferred it if you lot were here," he confessed.

"Aw. Remmy missed us," Sirius cooed and hugged him to his chest.

"Ge'off," He pushed and winced the same as Sirius when his leg was moved too quickly.

They both pulled matching concerned expressions on each other. It seemed Remus wasn't the only one to have hurt himself over Christmas.


	4. Chapter 4

James was practically bursting with pride at his Christmas present and demanded the dorms fullest attention. He kept them all in suspense with a long winded speech about how history has been made today in this dorm and how their lives would never be the same again-

"For Merlin's sake Potter get on with it," Sirius demanded from his draped position on Remus' back.

"No I will not Black. Not only is my surprise worth it but when we look back I want you to remember how brilliant this moment is..." and he continued with his speech. Remus cast an exasperated look over his shoulder making Sirius chuckle on top of him. Finally the boy finished

"For Hogwarts will know our names as the pranksters that were never caught," and with that he disappeared.

Remus stiffened trying to see what spell had been used to make him disappear. Peter squeaked and jumped three feet in the air.

"James? He squealed looking at where the boy undoubtedly touched him.

"Brilliant!" Sirius breathed getting off Remus to explore the room.

He guessed that it was something making James invisible since he could hear the giggles moving around the room and away from Sirius' questing hands. He got up to join Sirius in his search. Hearing James giggle and huff when Sirius got too close.

"Alright," Sirius pouted "Come out and gloat about your new prezzie."

James pulled something shimmery from his person, grinning from ear to ear at himself. He chucked the cloth over to Remus letting the remaining boys crowd around to feel it before explaining.

"It's an invisibility cloak. Apparently it's been in the family for generations and Dad decided it was time it was mine," he cheered "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Very," Sirius gushed stroking the fabric gently.

"Incredible," Remus breathed staring at the lavish present. Peter seemed lost for words as well and just mindlessly stared at it.

"Think of the possibilities," James crowed and threw the cloak over Peter making him disappear save for his feet.

"So much mischief," Sirius repeated from James' earlier speech.

"So many restricted books," Remus chimed.

Peter threw the cloak off and handed it sheepishly back to James while Remus shared equally evil looks with the other two boys. A prefect knocked at the door telling them that the welcome back feast was starting. They rushed down to join the rest of the school with James asking about the new hexes that Remus knew all the while he kept an eye on how Sirius carried himself. He hadn't forgotten how the boy had cringed when Remus touched him.

But before that Sirius wasn't done asking him about his.

"So what happened to your leg?"Sirius asked over tea.

"I told you, I tripped on that stupid trick step," he replied facing Sirius' disbelieving gaze.

"Why didn't you go to Pomphrey about it?" he interrogated.

"Because it's nothing. I'll be fine in a couple of days so long as I don't do anything too strenuous.

"So no duel club?"James inquired pitifully.

"We can still do that. I have tonnes of new spells for you," he promised watching the glint of mischief light in their eyes.

When they went back to the dorm, after ten minutes of begging, Remus showed them some new hexes that they spent the rest of the night trying to figure out. James threw the cloak on to try and sneak a few sly charms in but Sirius had mastered the art of dodging and managed to sense when James was going to try and hex him so James only got him a couple of times.

It was later when they all went to bed that Remus sneaked to Sirius' bed. He was asleep which was unusual since the last time he had seen him it had taken Remus pinning him down before he succumbed to sleep. Not being deterred he climbed in shaking Sirius awake as he went.

"Wha-? Rem?" He glanced down at Sirius' sleepy face and motioned for him to follow him.

Sirius groaned awake and did as Remus told him. He cast a silencing spell and locked them in as Sirius stretched. He wondered how to approach him and decided to ask directly.

"Are you okay? What was your Christmas like?"

"What do you mean?" Sirius avoided. "Your side's hurt. Did you do something to it?"

"I tripped," he replied staring pointedly at Remus. It was the same excuse he had given for his leg and Sirius knew it.

"Fine," Remus huffed and started pulling his shirt off followed by his pants.

"

What are you doing?" Sirius squeaked staring at the exposed skin.

"It's only fair," he replied taking his pants off, careful of his leg "You won't tell me what happened because you think I'm being untruthful about my leg so..." he finally got his last pant leg off "I show you mine so you show me yours."

Sirius looked horrified at all the scars that were on show and tried to turn his gaze subtly away from them. After a minute of Remus not relenting he sighed and tugged his own shirt off trying to keep his gaze away as Remus took in the damage on Sirius' chest. There were three large bruises spanning his chest, the first near his collarbone and the other two further down. Remus touched his hand to the one on Sirius' collarbone knowing that his fist would fit the pattern even if it was that of an adult that had made it.

"It doesn't hurt all that much. Only when I knock it," Sirius mentioned when he watched Remus make a fist.

"That's not the point..." He trailed moving to the other two to make sure they were the same "Who did this?" he smoothed over one hearing Sirius hiss.

"Dad, but I deserved it," Sirius defended when he met Remus' horrified look. "No, really. We were having a family dinner with the Malfoy's and that prick Lucius was there trying to suck up to my mum. He was saying horrid things and I kind of set his hair on fire. Dad was mortified," He breathed and Remus got what happened when the Malfoy's left.

"He shouldn't have hit you," Remus said.

"It's fine-"

"He shouldn't have hit you Sirius. It's not right," Remus scolded.

"What exactly do you expect me to do?" Sirius asked and Remus thought it was rhetorical before glancing back up at Sirius' face. He looked lost and like he was actually asking for guidance in this situation.

"I don't know, but you shouldn't hide it," he answered.

Sirius backed away scared "You want me to tell them," He pointed out the door "No way!"

"Why not? They're your friends," Remus argued.

"And yours. Yet you haven't shown us them," he said looking at the scars. It seemed he had some fascination with them and Remus couldn't really blame him. There were enough to make a mosaic with.

"Fine," Remus concluded and unlocked the door.

He walked out and into the boys dorms flicking his wand to light the candles before yelling at James and Peter to get up. Sirius watched from the bathroom door with his shirt firmly back on as James and Peter roused behind their curtains.

"Remus don't," Sirius begged holding his shirt out to him.

"No, your right," Remus said and yelled at James again "Come on this is important."

They finally opened their curtains to glare at Remus for waking them. He could see a few choice words on James' tongue as he stuck his head through only for them to die as he took in Remus' scars. Peter looked just about as horrified as Sirius about what he was looking at where as James was stuck between confusion and sleepiness.

"Remus what are those?" James finally asked getting out of bed and running his hand over one on his shoulder.

"I was in an accident when I was younger," he explained leaving out what exactly that accident had been "It's left me like this which is why I refused to shower or take my shirt off in the same room as you. I figure that since your my friends now that you have a right to know. Not to mention it would be really hard to hide this for seven years," he chuckled and watched as the humour met it's end in the room.

Peter hadn't moved and kept glancing in between Sirius and Remus before clearing his throat "That's awful. Not your scars, what happened," he amended.

"Yeah," James agreed turning Remus to look at his back. James had taken his near naked appearance to mean he could explore them all he wanted "It's really brave of you to do this," he told him "I'm glad you could trust us," He pulled him into a backwards hug before resuming his exploration.

Remus glanced towards Sirius in the bathroom. He was still holding out Remus' shirt but he had a torn expression on his face. Remus tried to convey that they were his friends. They wouldn't hold this against him.

"How many do you have?" Peter asked curiously trying to get a good look in the low light.

"A lot," Remus smiled.

"Tell me about it," James called from Remus' ankles "It's going to take two full examinations for me to count all of them."

"You're not counting them," Remus told him.

"I am," James argued staring haughtily back "It's either that or I draw on them when you're asleep. Take your pick."

Remus laughed at their easy acceptance and ignorance of what they were actually from. Sirius was still cast in shadows so Remus pulled James off him and went to take the shirt that he was still holding. "Please Sirius," he whispered "No one will think anything different of you."

He nodded. Remus smiled and pulled Sirius back in the room with him before going back to collect his discarded bottoms. James was pouting on the floor as Remus pulled his clothes back on.

"I'm doing it tomorrow," He warned.

"Fine," Remus agreed "But there's also another reason that I showed you them tonight. See Sirius... do you want to?" He asked again.

The boy just took a deep breath and pulled his own shirt off. This time James did gasp. Bruises were different to scars in a way since a scar is usually a distortion of faded pain. A bruise is something recent and can usually shown what had taken place to get that hurt. A circle meaning they had bumped into something and those leading off it meaning a hand had been placed on them.

James turned to Remus asking him to explain what was going on before turning back to Sirius. "What happened?" he asked.

"It's nothing," He whispered again.

"It was his dad," Remus told them since Sirius wasn't. He received a hiss and a glare for it but the steel that made itself home in James' eyes were worth Sirius' anger.

"I always knew they were strict but this..." he exclaimed while jumping up and pacing. "That's it. You're not going home again Sirius. You can come live with me or Remus or hell Peter. But you're not going back there," he told him.

Sirius was probably expecting something completely different than the whole dorm agreeing with what Remus had started to him in the bathroom.

"But-"

"No buts Black! It's one thing to send a kid to their room and another to hit them. I just thank Merlin that they don't hex you," He said stopping when Sirius grimaced. "They hex you?" He breathed and turned even redder with rage. "That's sick."

"It's fine!" He shouted.

"No it's not!" James yelled back starting an argument between them. They yelled for a whole hour on the theme of punishment and even if the examples Sirius used were ridiculous he didn't stop until they both retreated to their separate beds in a huff. James had warned that "This isn't over Black!" even though Sirius had put a silencing charm up as soon as his curtains were drawn. James turned to Remus and Peter who had seated themselves on Peter's trunk to watch the fight "You're on my side right?"

Peter nodded vehemently "It was the whole reason I showed you mine to begin with," Remus told him. James seemed to calm down with his new support and went to bed himself.

"We are going to be so tired tomorrow," Peter sighed before bidding Remus goodnight.

He sat there on Peter's trunk for a while trying to make sense of what had happened. Sirius was still defending his family despite what they had done to him over the Christmas or even for his whole life. James had been overreacting a bit when he told Sirius he couldn't go home again but Remus wasn't wholly against the idea. He supposed that he would have to talk James down from a permanent solution to a temporary one for the time being and talk Sirius into letting them help.

He climbed into Sirius' bed again receiving a glare that would have made ice take a second look at itself. "Are you okay?" he asked knowing it was a stupid thing but still asking anyway.

Sirius sighed "As fine as I'll ever be now everyone knows I'm being abused at home."

"Well you are," Remus told him.

"It's not like that," Sirius insisted "They only do it if I'm really bad and maybe they were more rough than usual but it's only because I've been out of line at school."

"Out of line?" Remus said incredulously "You've done nothing. Sure you've pulled a few pranks and maybe you should lay of Snape for a while but other than that you've done nothing."

"I've disgraced my family," Sirius said.

"How?"

"I'm here!" He shouted.

"Yes and they should be nothing but proud that your bravery is your greatest feature. Ambition gets you nowhere if you haven't got the bravery to do anything with it. If they can't accept that then maybe James is right about you not living there. They obviously can't be appreciating you how they should."

"And hows that then?" He asked turning to look at him.

"They should be treating you like a person. If hitting you because you've set someone's hair on fire or hexing you because you've been placed right is something they would do then they're treating you more like an object than a person. You have a will of your own Sirius and now you have friends who know what's going on. Who'll stand by you and help you, not because they expect anything but because they like who you are."

Sirius was fully facing him now, curled in on himself and watching as Remus made his case. "You really think that?"

"Yes. Sirius, James didn't start an argument with you for nothing. He's concerned and wants to get you away from them."

"But they're my family," He told him quietly.

"Not if they do that," Remus lay down as exhaustion finally caught up with him "Besides, for the next seven years we're family. And because of that you're going to seriously consider James' offer."

"I don't wanna live with Potter," He scowled and Remus detected a slight whine in his voice. He smiled knowing that the worst was over.

"You don't have to live with him. Just visit one of us over the summer for a while. Make the time with them less. I'd really hate to see who you'd become if you listened to what they told you," Remus remarked pulling the quilt up and making himself comfortable. He didn't think he was going to go back to his bed tonight.

"So you'd like the person I became if I didn't?" Sirius asked him quietly.

Remus hummed his agreement and turned his face into Sirius' pillow for some sleep. The next morning Remus showered with James. Both a daunting task for Remus because he hadn't really showered with any of the others before and another because he meant to make amends between James and Sirius.

"He seems more eager to agree to spending some of his summer holidays and not all of them with us," He explained.

"Really?" James asked from the stall over. Remus heard a sigh "I suppose it's better than nothing. You did tell him that we're keeping this between ourselves though. I don't want teachers involved. They'd only make it worse sending concerned notes back and making the Blacks come here. They'd probably try and take him out of school knowing them."

"No I haven't. I will though. Or you could," He proposed.

"I don't know if the idiot's talking to me yet," James replied.

"He will be if you tell him that," Remus shot back and stepped out to dry himself.

The sound of running water stopping had James jumping out and snatching Remus' towel away. He shouted his unhappiness and tried to take the towel back. It was thrown to the end of the room and James proceeded to towel him with his own counting as he went.

"You're an idiot," He told him.

"And you have a scar on your but. If I hadn't taken your towel then I wouldn't have known that now would I?"

"Why are you counting them?" Remus asked suddenly feeling self conscious.

James shrugged "They're kinda cool."

Remus had to do the rest of his routine with James leaning over his shoulder and had to wait with a very amused Peter while James finished counting the ones on his thighs before he could put his underwear on. Sirius emerged then and cast an odd look their way before turning to the bathroom.

"You should tell him," Remus said to James motioning to the door Sirius stepped through. Truth was he just wanted to get his clothes on.

"At breakfast. There'll be people there and he can't run without becoming hungry," James smirked before turning Remus around.

James did tell him at breakfast which opened the barrier for them to talk again. Granted it steered clear of things that were shouted last night and focused more on James' new broomstick but at least they were talking again.

They had their classes after that which proved to be a struggle for four first years who had spent half the night awake. Peter managed to blow up his cauldron in Potions the first day back without having put anything in it. Slughorn was both impressed and confused as to how that happened.

Finally they had the rest of the afternoon off after Defence Against the Dark Arts let out which meant one hour of sunlight before the dark nights made it curfew. It turned out that snow was a lot more fun when there were others to play with. Sirius and Peter tried to top the snowman that Remus had made with little success while James spent most of his time trying to bring Remus' down. He helped a little by pelting snowballs at the giants head but it seemed that the sticking charms were working since it didn't budge save for some off the top.

Remus' leg started to hurt when James insisted on shoving snow down his cloak making him run around a bit but he could ignore it now that he was with his friends. When the darkness finally started making an appearance Remus tried to call his friends in.

"But Remus it isn't even up to the middle," Sirius pouted rolling more snow onto his massive snowball. "Ten more minutes then we'll go in," He bargained and who was he to deny ten more minutes.

Ten minutes turned into half an hour, then two hours and before they knew it curfew had come and gone. Sirius called an end to the snowball race when he couldn't see in front of his scarf telling Peter that they could try again tomorrow. James and Remus had long ago abandoned any pretence of playing and had been charming each other warm.

"We should have brought the cloak," James said looking forlornly at the great doors.

"Well we'll remember that tomorrow Potter," Sirius said back. He put on a brave face but even he was nervous about sneaking around outside at night. They didn't know where Filch was or even if the door was still open.

"Maybe we can find another way in?" Peter suggested. James seemed reluctant and kept whispering about his cloak while Sirius contemplated it.

He turned to Remus "Well?"

"Well what?" he asked back.

"Know any passages into the castle?"

"Why would I know of any?" Remus queried.

"You found that one in the dungeons. Even if you don't know you could guess," Sirius explained and walked away from the door taking James' arm and bringing him to stand beside Remus.

"Well..." He thought "I suppose it isn't impossible. Salazar would definitely need more than one escape route. The others could have put some in as well," He mused thinking of where any of the founders would put a secret passage. "I suppose the lake..."

"The lake," Sirius repeated like it was obvious "Of course. Come on men." he called already walking away.

"Why the lake?" Peter asked following Sirius and James' lead.

"Well if they couldn't get out the front the lake would provide a suitable means of losing someone," Remus explained trying to think where he would put it.

They neared the lake that had frozen over in the winter. It was hard to see in the dark with all the muted white making everything look the same but they found it eventually and started up the slope to the castle. Remus warned them to keep out of the windows line of sight and also away from the door since they could be caught by both if they weren't lucky. The door itself was seated in between a long line of bricks that stretched with no arches on either side. Perfect for a secret passage.

"Now what? How did you find the last one?" James asked looking at the wall as if a door would magically appear.

"We searched along it for a breeze. Suppose that won't work here," Sirius mused and looked back over to Remus for guidance.

He looked along either side and searched for where the archways began on either side before standing back before the other three. The passage wouldn't be too near the door in case of sound travelling and also room capacity. If someone were to happen upon it all it would take was one well aimed knock and the wall would collapse inwards.

"Think," he told them "Inside there's a hallway that leads to here what does it look like?" He asked and thought for himself. There was a wide hallway that was wider on one side than the other. He turned and tried to place himself in there. The left side was smaller with the right opening out for portraits and the archway. There was a door to the other one meaning that the passage had to go down but the opening would be in the wall. "Here," he told them "Feel along this wall."

"What if it's like the Slytherin dungeons and needs a secret tap?" Sirius asked.

"They wouldn't make them all the same. Not to mention we need to find it before we worry about opening it," He told him and helped them in their search. The bricks were all tightly packed together and showed no crease for where it could open up.

Then Remus remembered that it went down. Wizards had brooms who was to say that they needed to walk into it.

"Get higher," He said and helped Sirius lift James up to feel along the wall.

"Here! I think I've found it," he told them "It's only a small crack but there's a weird feeling on it. Like it's sucking the air in."

"That's it," Remus whooped and asked if there was any manual way to open it.

"No, I think it's like the last one," He called down.

"It won't be a tap. They'd make everything different in case of discovery."

"Why?" James asked incredulously before climbing down Sirius' shoulders "Right if it's not a tap what is it? What else would someone use for a passageway?"

"A password," Sirius suggested.

"A password and a tap?" Peter said unsure of his suggestion.

"Some kind of key?" James piped.

"Hmmm. But they would have to get in and out from outside. So they would be on a broom. James you ride a lot what can someone carry on a broom?"

"Well depending on the make and the size of the wizard, nothing bigger than a large bag," he thought and walked back to stare up at where the door supposedly is "But it would be hard to keep on the broom and put the key in. A password is more likely," he told Remus.

"It won't be a password," he said waving away that thought "If the wind was too loud then it wouldn't be heard," They were all stuck as to what else it could be.

"Maybe we should try a different passage," Peter suggested.

"But we've came all the way here now," Sirius whined while James and Remus agreed with Peter.

"We'll come back to this one Sirius," James promised before they turned to Remus again. He thought of other ways back into the castle but came up empty. It was too cold to think since the heating charms had worn off.

"We need to find some place warm," Remus told them not knowing how much longer they could stay in the snow without catching a cold.

"The boat harbour's all the way back over there," Sirius pointed towards where the entrance of the castle was "Maybe we could ask Hagrid?"

"No," James said "He's too loyal to the staff. One mention of our names and he'd be telling them how many rock cakes we'd had," They knew this from experience.

"Then where else is there? We may as well take our chances with the front entrance," Sirius argued.

"If it wasn't locked before it is now," Remus told him and put his arms under his armpits for warmth.

"Well I think we should stay and figure this out then," Sirius demanded turning back to the stubborn wall. "It has to open somehow and we've no other options. So we're going to do this."

He grabbed Peter by his scruff and had him help him up until he reached the small crack in the bricks. James and Remus shared an exasperatedly cold look at each other before James went to help Peter keep Sirius steady. Remus took a couple of steps back and sat in the snow when his leg protested more than it had been. The cold had made it ache and the walking tired him out. He cast a heating charm once more on himself to keep the snow from giving him anymore unfortunate ailments before watching the other three search for the entrance.

Sirius was feeling out the bottom of the opening. He wasn't tall enough to reach further up but he tried nonetheless. James kept pointing things out that he had discovered on his last boost up there but Sirius just told him to shut up in the end. The air was getting colder as the night wore on and still they were no closer to going inside. Peter had started shivering so much that Sirius ended up kicking him when he slipped a few inches. After that he decided to try and find a foothold in the bricks to keep it from happening again. They tried everything they could think of. James brought up as many wizarding phrases he could think of while Sirius tapped again and again on the stones he could reach.

It was luck that eventually found the entrance. James had lit up his wand end when Sirius tried to get higher on the bricks. They figured that if they could melt the ice on the brickwork and find little holes that Sirius would stand a better chance of getting higher. It worked a little since Sirius managed to get halfway up what they assumed was the entrance but it also meant that James' light showed them what they were dealing with. Remus had vaguely glanced at the wall again after two hours of sitting there when James' light caught on a brick that was set apart just slightly from the others.

"There!" He shouted pointing excitedly. "That's it. It isn't a key or a password. Sirius! Push that brick or see if you can get it out somehow," He called up pointing and jumping at the brick.

Sirius tried to shimmy his way across towards it. It was just within his reach when his foot slipped. A small 'Ow!' and a scrape on his cheek was the damage before he managed to regain his footing on the wall. Remus could see he was trying not to let go and feel his new cut and felt proud that he put them in front of himself in this situation. The brick was jutting out only a couple of centimetres and Sirius had to push a lot before it finally gave way. But as soon as that did the whole wall followed and Sirius fell face first into a hole that had only one destination which was down. They all shouted of him as he fell further into the castle and James was grabbing the pair of them to lift him up so he could follow.

"I'm fine," Was what it took for them to calm down. Sirius' echoed voice reached their panicked ears and James finally stopped trying to stand on Peter's back.

"Can you get back up?" James asked.

"Not without a broom. Remus was right this thing was made so you flew out," He told them.

James still wasn't content to go slowly into the passage despite Sirius being okay. He had them pushing him up and into the revealed hole as soon as possible. Then Remus was next since Peter argued he was lighter than himself. Unlike James he positioned himself on the brick wall and helped Peter up too, telling him to wait thirty seconds before following him into the passage.

The descent was longer than he had been expecting. There were smooth walls on either side which meant he couldn't slow his fall and the landing was hard and painful. The floor was smooth which Remus argued was better than stones and bones but it still hurt when he made impact. It sloped down at an angle where he could hear Sirius and James talking so he moved tentatively down the makeshift slide, trying not to shift his injured leg anymore. A squeal behind him told that Peter had just jumped down the hole. Remus hoped that the wall magically sealed itself after an allotted time or else their other passage would be exposed.

"Are you alright Remus?" James asked pulling him up. Remus winced as his leg held his weight.

"Fine. Could you hold your wand higher? I can't see," He said and reached for his own while James moved his up.

James didn't look all that hurt, just a bit dusty and wet from the snow they had been in. A quick look at Sirius showed that he was the same only he had a nasty scrape on his cheek as well. He didn't have to look to know that he was covered in dust too and so would Peter be when he slid down the slope.

Once they were all together again and had their wands lit Remus looked at the passage they had discovered. It was big enough for someone to fly in since it was the size of a classroom in height. He couldn't feel the sides and wondered where about in the castle they were.

"Everyone alright to move?" James asked the company flicking his wand in their faces. "Good. Come on, we better move. I'd hate to get in only to die because we couldn't find the exit," He joked which wasn't particularly funny when you were recovering from near frostbite and a ten story drop.

James moved first quickly followed by Peter who was more than eager to take the lead alongside James. Sirius held back looking Remus over again before coming to some kind of decision and taking his arm. He slung it along his shoulder and told him to shut up when Remus questioned his actions. The position meant that some of Remus' weight was being carried by Sirius. It alleviated the strain on his leg which, although it made them slow to follow, meant that Remus wasn't in as much pain when he moved.

"It doesn't hurt that much," He said after a while.

"Sure it doesn't," Sirius said and hefted Remus a little further onto his shoulders.

The passage was long but came to an abrupt stop after twenty minutes of walking. James couldn't seem to find the exit on the wall and had Peter search either side to see if it just lead in a different direction. When that proved fruitless they turned their search up. The top couldn't be seen with their wands as their only light and even if the exit was there the walls were too smooth to climb up.

"What do we do?" James asked with his back facing him.

"I don't know. It has to open somewhere," Remus responded taking his arm off Sirius' shoulder so he could sit on the floor.

"You're forgetting that whoever was meant to travel in here would have a broom. We need to think of convenient entrances for someone making a quick getaway on a broom," Sirius suggested. "It's what Remus would do in any case. Right," He asked looking at him for agreement "It's what you did before and again outside."

"But I don't know," Remus told him "It's too smooth and dark."

"Then we'll wait in here for sunrise and climb out the way we came," Sirius said.

"That's just the same," Remus scowled thinking of the long drop they came down and how long it would take them, if they could, to get back up it.

"Then we need to start thinking like paranoid people again. James, you own a broom," Sirius said demanding the three boys attention. Remus saw James hastily wipe away some tears on his face when he turned. It seems he wasn't the only one feeling hopeless.

"Yeah, so?"

"So, like before, what would you suggest for someone riding their broom in the castle. Which way would they come in?" Sirius asked pacing in front of them all. He looked like some military sergeant with his hands poised behind his back.

"Well I guess they would drop in. Just jump and climb on their broom in mid air. The place is big enough," He muttered and cast his gaze around the dark room.

"Then the answer lies up. Peter!" He shouted calling the small boy back to the group. "Stop wandering. Now Remus I want you to think of any levitation charm that comes to mind. We'll be needing to get to the ceiling and to do so we'll need magic," He said with a flourish of his wand.

"I suppose I've read a few," Remus said thinking back to the list of spells he had in his trunk and the others in the books he had read. "Not to mention we learnt one the first day of classes Sirius. You don't need me to think of one," Remus snapped knowing that Sirius had made his contribution a none moving one. He was fine, why couldn't Sirius just accept that like the other two.

"Alright then, let's get to it," He said completely ignoring Remus' snappy remark.

He seated himself next to Remus and performed the levitation charm on Peter while making Remus do the same to James. Once they were up in the air they cast their wands about for anything that could get them out.

"You know we should really write these passages down somewhere," Peter called out "Or even make a map!" He said a bit more excitedly.

"Can't Pete," James told him shooting his idea down immediately.

"Why not?"

"Remus why not?" He called letting Remus regurgitate the answer they had all read in Hogwarts a History.

"The castle's unplottable which means that we can't write down on a previous map or create one about the grounds of Hogwarts," He said in what they had all dubbed before Christmas his 'professor voice.'

"Yeah Pete!" Sirius called up mockingly twirling his wand a bit and sending Peter flying. Remus nudged him in the ribs to stop catching one of his bruises as he did.

"Sorry," He whispered. Sirius just nodded and concentrated on Peter again.

"It's not really an answer though," Peter continued after righting himself "I mean if anyone could create a map of the grounds it would be us- or you- right?"

Sirius looked contemplatively into the gloom where Peter was. There was a certain air of challenge on his face which was reflected in James' answer "Right you are Peter. Suppose that could be our project when we get out of here. After all we have two secret passages already."

"What do you think?" Sirius asked him.

Remus was at a loss. Spellwork to counteract that placed on the Hogwarts grounds would be very advanced and would take months of work. "What kind of a map are we talking about?" He narrowed his eyes in thought, it wouldn't be impossible to do so. Just hard.

"Dunno. One that shows all our secret passages and the rest of the grounds so we don't get lost again like this," He said motioning to the wider room and sending Peter flying again.

"We'd have to go to the library," He warned and received a beaming grin in response.

"Guys!" James called "I think I've found the exit."

A couple of tugs and a small light came down into the darkened room. The couldn't see more of the room other than grey stone but James whooped at his discovery and had Remus levitate him up and out. He pulled Peter up and told him to cast a levitating charm on Sirius and Remus to bring them up as well. The beam of light turned out to be an opening much like the one near the front entrance that was large enough to fit two people or in this case a wizard and his broom.

They somewhere on the second floor, near the Transfiguration classroom when they got out and didn't waste any time closing their passageway and sprinting back to their dorm.

The fat lady wasn't pleased by their rousing of her but they couldn't risk fleeing for their lives from Filch on top of their ordeal and suffered through her nattering. Remus didn't even want to know what time it was when he crawled into Sirius' bed that night and instead let himself luxuriate in sleeping until breakfast.

Their little excursion left them more tired than they thought it had. Instead of one of them waking up when the alarm went off for breakfast it took Peter jumping on the bed to wake them up.

"Go 'way Peter," Sirius grumbled burrowing into his pillow and shoving Remus along at the same time.

"What time is it?" Remus asked less grumpily than Sirius.

"We've missed breakfast!" The short boy worried "And first period! If we don't hurry Slughorn will notice we're not there," That woke him up.

He sprinted towards the bathroom while shedding his clothes and shouting for Peter to get Sirius up before he pushed James along and shared his shower with him. The boy didn't even protest the disruption of privacy and seemed was as hyped up as he was. He asked if Remus would scrub his back while he washed off the shampoo in his hair.

"Why did you even wash it?!" He exclaimed while practically drowning himself in soap.

"It was dirty!" James snapped back "Now hurry up or we're going to be late."

A crash sounded from the room beyond followed by a squeak and an apocalyptic Sirius storming into the bathroom.

"Stop gawking Lupin and get my back!" James whined pulling Remus back in the shower.

They were five minutes late to their potions lesson. All of them were presentable though which Remus counted as a win since they had spent the night in dirt and snow. Sirius was in a foul mood that became worse as the lessons droned on. Remus hadn't the mind to care since his stomach was making itself known and it wasn't happy.

They had two more lessons before lunch and one of them was defence which was a lesson he actually found interesting at times he wasn't dying of hunger. His stomach growled all the way through each and every lesson followed by James, Peter and Sirius as back up singers.

"I swear if I don't have something to eat now I'm going cannibal," He muttered to James casting Peter an evil look. The boy averted his eyes quickly while James chuckled in his ear.

"I wouldn't go there if I were you," James whispered back "It's probably mostly fat. You'd want someone with a bit of muscle. That's where all the meat is," he pointed down at a glowering Sirius.

Remus snorted "Nice to know you support my choice of eating people," He joked.

"Of course. What are friends for," James replied back with a wink. They both dissolved into giggles and spent the rest of their lessons coming up with the perfect meal out of their classmates.

Lunch finally came with the four boys moaning joyfully at every bite. People shot them weird and amused looks before they returned to their own meals but they didn't care.

"I swear we're going to have to come up with some kind of back up plan for exploring. There's no way I'm missing meals because of some stupid expedition," He told them around three bites of chicken.

"Same," Peter agreed.

"I wonder where they make the food," James said taking a break from inhaling his own to stare contemplatively at it.

"The kitchens," Sirius said like it was obvious.

"Yeah but where are the kitchens. And who makes the food. I don't see servers or anything," James complained back to him.

"Maybe there's Oompa Loompa's and a giant chocolate waterfall," Remus joked and stopped when he saw three confused faces "Really? You've never heard of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?"

"The what?" James asked.

"Pure-bloods," He muttered to himself and went back to his food.

"Pushing Remus' loopy comment aside," James said turning back to Sirius "There's also the question of who cleans our rooms. I dunno about you but my bed is always made and my clothes clean when I go to put them on yet I see no one coming in and out of our room. What do you make of that?"

"Well," Sirius replied taking his time to come up with an answer "There's probably someone for that too," he settled on making James scoff.

"Why don't we find out," Remus suggested trying to quell an argument that was bound to happen.

"How?" Sirius asked.

"We set a trap. Put a bunch of dirty clothes in a pile and when whoever comes to get them comes in they'll get trapped and we'll have our answer," he explained thinking back on when he tried the same technique on Santa Clause. It was a very sad year when his father told him there was none.

"Sounds good," James agreed along with Peter and Sirius.

The rest of the day passed in a lazy doze after lunch. Sated with their meal they could let themselves appreciate the daylight and the things they were learning. When classes finally let out they went straight to the dorm, the outside having lost its allure for a while after the previous night.

"So when do you want to get started on the map?" Peter asked eager to see his idea come alive.

"After we've caught whoever comes in our room," James told him trying to dirty his clothes every way he knew how. He even stole a third year's muddy boots and stomped all over his shirt.

"Maybe in a couple of days Peter," Remus said giving the boy a realistic estimate to his wait "I'm still tired from last night and it'll be better to do it when we have a full day to ourselves." Peter nodded at the logical response and put some of his own clothes on the pile that was growing at the bottom of Sirius' bed.

Remus had looked up some binding charms and also stole some rope from one of the Hogwart's chandeliers. It took him and James ten minutes to figure out how people set traps and then an hour to make the rope into something that would work. By nightfall they had two traps set. The first a muggle one that Remus and James had made and another that had them currently hiding under James' invisibility cloak.

"Stop giggling Potter," Sirius reprimanded.

"Sorry. It's just I can't believe we're using it," He chuckled which was muffled by Sirius' hand clamping over his mouth. Remus smiled fondly at him for shutting James up before curling closer under the cloak.

They had figured that whoever it was knew when they were out or asleep and so they lay in wait with their wands poised under the cover of invisibility. A popping noise caught there attention and something wrinkly made its way to the pile of clothes on the floor. They nodded to each other just as the muggle trap went off and sent their binding curses at the creature picking up Peters sock.


	5. Chapter 5

Remus heard Sirius let out a distraught groan but paid him no mind. The creature that they had captured was way more interesting than whatever had made Sirius frown in distaste.

"What is it?" He asked James, knowing that the pure-blood had more knowledge about magical beings than him.

"A house elf," He told Remus putting his hands out in front in a none threatening gesture.

"It couldn't have been something else?" Sirius bemoaned.

"What's wrong with a house elf?" Remus asked not taking his eyes off the leathery creature with the moon plated eyes.

"Wrong? What's right? They're annoying," Sirius groaned and Remus cast a disdaining look back at him when the house elf's big eyes filled with tears.

"Shut up, you're upsetting it," He demanded and helped James undo the binding spells. James was talking soothingly at the house elf and trying to get it to ignore the tantrum that Sirius was throwing on it's behalf. The thing looked ready to bolt as soon as they undid the last knot on their muggle trap but strangely didn't. "Sirius, I mean it!" Remus threatened and watched as the boy immediately quietened down.

"Sirius is an idiot. I think you're doing a brilliant job around here," James complimented making the house elf look a bit better than before (He wasn't about ready to cry anymore). "All the food is great and my socks haven't been cleaner!" He continued.

"Yeah," Remus joined "I really like your chocolate cake. It's one of my favourites."

The house elf lit up at the compliments about his work in the castle and even smiled when Remus mentioned the chocolate cake. "Hooky is pleased with Master's praises," It spoke and if Remus took a little step back then that was entirely because of something other than the house elf speaking. It had a squeaky voice that gravelled into an almost whisper mid sentence and James had to lean forward to hear what it was saying most of the time "Hooky tries to keep Gryffindor house as clean as Hooky can."

"Well Hooky's doing a very good job," James smiled and whacked Sirius when he scoffed. Hooky beamed and felt safe enough to continue gathering the socks and clothes they had put on the bed. "So is it all house elves that work in Hogwarts or do you work with anyone else?"

"Hooky has only seen house elves. But Hooky knows that the Half-Giant works for Master Dumbledore too if that is what Master is asking," James tilted his head to the side in confusion before snapping his fingers.

"Hagrid!" Remus startled before thinking back on the gamekeeper that he had seen vaguely at Christmas. He was tall but Remus had never thought that there might be a reason for his bulk. Him being a half-giant made Remus wonder if he was just one in a long line of experiments. "Say Hooky?" James called when the house elf looked ready to leave "I don't suppose you would know how one could get some chocolate cake after hours do you? It's only that Remus here," He hauled Remus over with his arm slung around his shoulders "Is looking kind of ill, and like he said, he positively adores your cake."

The house elf vanished as soon as James had finished speaking. Remus guessed that he had been too presumptuous in his questioning and scared the poor elf off.

"What do you have against house elves?" He asked Sirius turning out of James' slung arm. The boy was still pouting where he had dramatically fallen on one of their beds.

"They're just annoying. All that snivelling and favouritism," He shuddered and Remus knew there was more to it.

"He didn't seem too bad," But Sirius didn't answer back. Instead a 'pop' sounded behind him and Hooky reappeared.

He took Remus' hand making him stoop so he wouldn't fall as the house elf led him out of the dorm. James was hot on his heels with Peter, not wanting to be left out of the excitement, trailing timidly behind him. The boy hadn't said anything since the house elf appeared and Remus supposed that he too was in shock of the creature that had been coming in and out of their rooms without their knowledge for a half a year now. Sirius brought up the rear with a concerned scowl painted across his face and kept glancing at the white leathery hand that pulled Remus down the deserted corridors.

Hooky took them through hallways without encountering anyone and down stairs without any incidents such as Remus' imminent demise from walking at an odd angle. They eventually arrived outside of a portrait where the house elf tickled the pear on the painted fruit bowl. Once the portrait swung open Remus could feel nothing but bliss.

The smell was exquisite and flavours assaulted every crevice of his nose. Inhaling deeply wasn't enough to satisfy his palate so Remus stepped through to an army of house elves crowding around his feet. Hooky was beaming at him and welcoming his friends to greet the four boys with the same attitude.

"Master wants some chocolate cake," He squeaked and three house elves disappeared from the back to fetch something.

He glanced back at James and Peter who were similarly crowded next to him. James, obviously used to seeing house elves, complimented them immensely and requested an array of foods to be delivered to his stomach. Peter having took the same route of James was timidly asking for sweets of everything he could think of. The house elves weren't put out though and seemed to grow even happier with every request the two boys put in.

Remus glanced to his other friend who had remained at the back for their whole journey. "Are you alright?" Sirius looked at him strangely before casting a suffering look at his hoard of house elves.

"Fine," He grunted but moved closer to Remus all the same.

A tug on his hand had Remus looking into one of the most mouth watering chocolate cakes he had ever set eyes on. He may have cried a bit at the sight of it and was almost hesitant to taste it. Almost being key. The cake was half eaten by the time James and Peter's food came.

Remus offered some of the cake to Sirius who just picked at the icing "Are you sure you don't want anything?" The house elves all seemed to lean closer to Sirius when Remus asked making the boy scowl and shake his head negatively. "Do you want to share this at least. I don't think I'm gonna be able to eat it all," A lie, but still Remus was trying to be nice to him.

"No that's okay," Sirius reassured and chuckled when Remus dug back into his cake more eagerly than before. "I suppose this is another thing we're gonna add to the list then," He said swiping his finger more confidently through Remus' cake.

He pouted at the black haired boy "List?"

"You know, for that map Peter wants to make," Sirius explained trying to steal more of Remus' food.

"Get you're own you said you didn't want anything," He complained holding the cake out of reach. Sirius just smirked and pounced on top of Remus to get more. Once Sirius had claimed the rest of the cake and the house elves off baking another for Remus to take back to the dorm he agreed that "We'll definitely have to add this place. I think James and Peter may just move in with these elves."

"Hmm," Sirius mumbled shovelling more cake into his mouth.

"So," Remus tentatively tried "What's your house elf like?"

Sirius cast him a narrow look "Awful. He's my mother's pet, let's just keep it at that," He dismissed, not asking how Remus knew he had a house elf.

"Not all of them are the same," Remus tried "It's like saying that all humans are. There are some that are bad and some that aren't. Everything that can think for itself can be either." Sirius seemed to consider his words but didn't agree or disagree with him that night about it.

The cake that the house elves made was carried up by Hooky to their dorm while the boys took the long route back after bidding the rest of the Hogwarts staff farewell. On the way back up James and Peter were indeed making plans to go back to the kitchens at least four times a week and were making menu's up of what they were going to order next. Sirius remained quiet on the way back up and only when they were back in their dorm did he speak. But even that was just a goodnight and a pull of Remus' arm so they could go to sleep.

It didn't really hit Remus' sleep deprived mind that sleeping in Sirius' bed had become a habit. His own was foreign to him now that Sirius was back and crawling in next to the black haired boy seemed like a natural thing to do. He only hoped that James and Peter thought they were staying up late to plot something rather than actually sleeping and wondered why that was. Surely there was nothing wrong in sleeping in someone else's bed.

The next morning saw another day of all four boys trying not to fall asleep in the middle of their lessons. Remus vowed that tonight he was sleeping from eight until morning. Spells seemed to be something of a complication to his brain when he was faced with a transfigured button and he ended up with a button mouse hybrid that wasn't pleasant to look at. James had naturally finished transfiguring his after the first two tries and was napping behind his open book. Sirius was waving his wand sleepily and accidentally removed all of the back from the chair in front of him. The student hit their head but were otherwise uninjured in Sirius' miscalculation. Remus didn't even want to glance over at Peter since the last time he looked there had been steam coming from the end of his wand.

McGonagall wasn't happy with them by the end of the lesson. There were no detentions and James was waiting patiently outside of the door since he had actually done the work when they came out of their scolding. Lunch was one of the shortest he believed he had ever had in Hogwarts. It seemed that he had only closed his eyes for a second reaching for the bread and then he was walking towards care of magical creatures.

Professor Kettleburn had them working outside which soon woke all of them up. The wind was freezing what little warmth Remus possessed in his body while the snow was sucking out the rest through his feet.

The creature that was so important for them to see was nothing more than a skittish unicorn that wouldn't let anyone of the male gender see it let alone study it. It was pointless for the boys to be out in this weather but Kettleburn insisted so Remus suffered.

By the time classes had finished he devoured one slice of chocolate cake that the house elves had made and crawled into bed to sleep until morning.

Remus knew that Sirius and him had definitely developed some kind of habit when he woke in his own bed and found a face full of Sirius' hand on top of him. The sun was shining merrily through the window and the open curtains which he had forgotten to close that night and promptly stung Remus' newly awoken eyeballs.

He shook Sirius awake before climbing over the boy and starting their morning routine with a spring in his step. Regardless of the painful awakening it was nice to have all of his functions responding with renewed vigour that can only occur after a good nights sleep.

It seemed he wasn't the only one affected by the early night since James and Sirius were back to their usual selves in classes. They used whatever they had been taught for the lesson to torment Remus and Peter whilst amusing the rest of the class.

After classes though they became serious in their next venture that they had vowed to undertake. The idea of a map that could tell them every secret passageway that they discovered seemed to have taken root in their minds. Remus could even see the merit of having a map like that. It would mean that he would never get lost, not to mention that he wouldn't be standing outside one of them and wondering whether it was a tap or a knock that opened it. So they all circled around the floor of the dorm that night whilst sharing Remus' reluctantly given chocolate cake and brainstorming how they could accomplish such a feat.

"I mean it is unplottable so there would have to be some counteracting spell that would allow us to create the map without hindering any of the wards Dumbledore put up," He said around a mouthful of chocolate.

James nodded "Not to mention we'd have to explore every inch of this castle. Including the forest and every restricted area. The price of this map is pretty high."

"But worth it," Sirius chimed, his eyes sparkling at the possibilities laid out in front of him "I suppose we'd have to start at the foundations though. Try and find spells that would allow us to draw the bloody castle before starting the exploring," which meant that a trip to the library would be coming.

"Why can't we just split off into pairs," Peter suggested "There's four of us so there'd be an equal number in each group and we can rotate every week so no one complains."

"Not a bad idea Pete," James relented and pushed more of Remus' cake into Peter's lap. He growled a little under his breath watching more of his cake disappear.

"So who would go first?" Sirius asked stealing the remainder from James and handing it back to Remus. "I think that maybe you and Remus should hit the library first and me and Peter explore the dungeons but if you have an objection to this..." It was strange that Sirius would volunteer to take Peter as his partner. The boy hadn't really shown much affection towards him but Remus thought that maybe he had a different way of showing friendship to the small boy.

"What? Why?" James groaned.

"What do you have against Remus?" Sirius argued.

"Nothing!" James reassured "I just don't want to go to the library first. I wanna go down the dungeons," He whined.

"Well tough! You and Remus are the only ones that can make sense of half those books. Not to mention he'll need the cloak to get into the restricted section," This piqued James' interest. He had been waiting for another opportunity to use his cloak and now it had presented itself.

Remus could tell that James was sold and smirked at the fact that the boy was trying to play it cool with his relenting "I suppose. I mean Remus would probably be found in minutes without me there." Remus scoffed and disguised it with another bite of his cake.

The weekend came quicker than Remus expected and found both him and James sneaking around the dust laden shelves trying to find the restricted section in the dark. They had decided to wait for Saturday night to try their hand at stealing some books since they still had homework and their promised duelling session to attend. He could tell that James would rather be anywhere but the library and thanked that the thought of the cloak being more use for exploring hadn't crossed James' mind.

James prodded him in the stomach before motioning his head towards the back of the library. A rope was the only thing sectioning off the restricted books so both were wary when ducking under it for fear of wards being around to alert Madam Pince of thieving first years. They needn't have worried about the rope being what gave them away since the first thing they noticed upon entering the restricted section was the amount of spells placed on every book there. The presence of magic was heady in the quiet library and they knew that they couldn't so much as touch one of the books without something happening to them.

"What are we gonna do?" James asked poking his wand close to a book about Vampires.

"For starters we're going to have to find the books we want. We'll worry about the counter spells after that," Remus waved away and started off on one isle.

He hadn't a clue what he was looking for and just hoped that something along the lines of map making would emerge from the titles on display. It was in the third isle he checked that something half useful caught his eye. A book about landscaping spells. It could hold some answers to their unplottable problem so Remus wrote the title down on the parchment that he brought with him. There was no use trying to figure out the counterspells just yet since he didn't even know a detection spell. Writing down that he needed to remedy that on the way out, Remus continued his search.

The allotted two hours they had given each other passed and both boys met up again near the entrance of the restricted section. James showed his list to Remus whilst Remus checked over the books James had found. Most of them seemed like they could be of some use and in total he was proud to say they had ten books together to work from. Their work was done for the night after that so James held the cloak ready for Remus to disappear under and they journeyed out of the library. But not before Remus swiped some books on detection spells.

Naturally Sirius and Peter would be gone longer than they were so the boys had the dorm all to themselves for another couple of hours. Remus got started on reading about different detection spells and jotted them down on the spell list that he had the other three learning.

"How did you get this one?" James asked pointing to another scar on Remus' leg. It was something James had done the past ten minutes to pass the time before Sirius and Peter made their way back.

"I told you I don't like to talk about them," He muttered back which was the same answer he had given every time James pushed more of his trouser leg up.

"Ugh, you're so boring," James complained and went back to looking at his broom that was perched happily beside his bed. Of course that only deterred his attention for another two minutes before he was poking Remus' flesh again.

"You know you could help," He held a book out and smiled at the distasteful look James gave it. "It won't bite, it's just a book."

"Says you. I don't suppose you've read many wizarding books," James joked. Remus liked it when James joked with him, it wasn't often that the boy would pay his sole attention on him and it was nice to know that Remus wasn't just a background character in his life.

"Not really." He smiled back "But I suppose I will have by the end of the year," he held the book he was reading up as proof and pulled a face at James.

The boy laughed and picked up one book at random to start flitting through. "So when's you're birthday?" James asked casually peering up behind his glasses.

"February 12th. Mum jokes that if I had waited a bit longer I could have been a little Valentine for my dad," They laughed. "What about you?"

James beamed "April 21st. Sometimes it falls on easter so I get eggs and presents. It's brilliant!" Conversation between reading became easier after that. They talked about their parents and lives before Hogwarts and soon Remus could name every single owl that the Potter family ever had.

Peter and Sirius were late coming back to the dorm. Not late in the night since they were all up beyond acceptable hours, but late as in they hadn't come back at the specified time that they were allotted. James began pacing whilst Remus jotted down notes next to him. He looked calm but was really hoping that they hadn't been caught by Filch. After being blamed for something he didn't do over the Christmas he had a low opinion on the man.

"They have to be somewhere!" James kicked at Sirius' trunk in a rage.

"I'm sure they're fine," He jotted down a useful spell along with the movements "Do you think this enough?" He held the covered parchment up eliciting a laugh from James.

"More than enough mate. I think Sirius might ban you from book duty if you keep that up," He smiled which soon turned into a frown and pacing again.

When the boys did return to the dorm James pounced on both of them with a stern word in their ears. He almost woke the entire house up with his ranting and Remus was cringing at every time a knock sounded in the room in case it was someone telling them to keep the noise down. No one came to their door though and soon Sirius tired of the rant and shoved James away.

"Would you let me speak!" He shouted over James' tirade "We ran into some trouble when Peter saw Filch's stupid cat. He didn't catch us but it was a close one, we had to hide in the charms classroom until he left."

"The charms classroom?" James was puzzled and Remus noted Peter's eyes getting wide at another rant that was sure to follow "That's nowhere near where you were supposed to be. Sirius what the hell did you do?"

"Nothing," He defended.

Peter was the one that caved "We went to the kitchens for something to eat," He whimpered and cowered when James sent a death glare his way.

"You risked your necks for something to eat? How could you be so stupid Black! You were meant to go to the dungeons and then come straight back. Not detour to the kitchens for something to eat. What, was tea not good enough?!"

"I don't see what you're in such a strop about. We did it a couple of days ago, how is tonight any different?" Sirius shouted back. Remus got up to gather his pyjama's together and started changing. This looked like a long argument and he didn't want to stay up to hear it.

"Because you had something else to do tonight. Not fill your bellies up," He put the books back in his trunk and gathered the parchment together before separating it into piles.

"No, you know what this is. This is all because you weren't there. You can't stand the fact that Peter and I went to the kitchens without you." With them into piles he folded the ones he would be giving to Sirius and put them on the small table next to his bed and put the other pile in his trunk.

"No it isn't!"

"Yes it is!" Peter hadn't moved from where James had petrified him and Remus was half tempted to go over and nudge him into his own bed.

"Not everyone is as self obsessed as you Black!" Then again Peter moving might cause more of an uproar when James notices he exists again.

"Self Obsessed? How the hell am I self obsessed!" He hopped onto his own bed and closed the curtains to block out James and Sirius' red faces.

"Oh please, everything's about you," He adopted a poor imitation of Sirius "Oh poor me wallowing in my own self pity because I'm in Gryffindor. Poor me that Remus won't talk to me, I suppose there must be something wrong with him after all who can resist the charms of Sirius Black! Where the hell do you think you're going!" A slam sounded and Remus gathered that Sirius must have stormed out.

There was a quiet in the room that was only broken by James' heavy breathing. Remus stuck his head out tentatively to find that Peter still hadn't moved and James was glaring at the door. "Maybe you went a bit far," Remus supplied but only received a glare and 'shut up' before James turned to get ready for bed.

Remus hoped that Sirius would sneak in the dorm that night but when he woke up it wasn't Sirius' black hair that was fanned out on Remus' pillow but James'. He was snug under the covers and almost hugging the pillow in his sleeping state. Remus frowned and glanced at the time before deeming it was acceptable to wake James up. The boy was groggy and seemed a tad startled when he saw he wasn't alone but calmed when he put his glasses back on.

"Any reason you're in my bed?" Remus asked sitting up along with James.

He shrugged and scratched his hair that was possibly the worst it had ever been "Sirius does it," He mumbled "Thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. You two never sleep in separate beds anymore you know," He remarked mostly to himself.

"He used to keep me up with his nightmares," Remus explained and picked at his covers hoping that James would relent the real reason he had hopped into Remus' bed.

"You were asleep. I wanted to apologise for what I said and when I couldn't I just..." He shrugged again.

"Why are you apologising to me. It seems that Sirius is the one you need to do that to," James scowled at that but didn't argue so at least he knew he was in the wrong.

"Yeah but I said that thing about you and I just want you to know that I didn't mean anything by it. It's just what Sirius said at the beginning of the year. You know when we didn't know you and he didn't even say it in a bad way, he just wondered whether you had some kind of people issues or something. I dunno..." His apology was awful but Remus could see that he was sincere and took it anyway.

"It's fine. But you really should apologise to Sirius not me. He said some things that he needs to apologise for as well but I think that you should go first. That last remark you made was kind of mean," James nodded.

"I don't suppose you could talk to him beforehand though could you?" Remus was confused as to why James was asking him to. "It's just that you and him seem really close. I know that we play pranks and stuff but you're the only one he actually talks to about what's wrong. Even I didn't know the Blacks were that bad and I have to see them at reunions. Please Remus?"

He nodded "Of course."

James bounced a bit on his bed "Thanks. You know, Sirius might be onto something, I haven't slept this good since I came back. You make a nice heater Lupin," He joked making Remus snort.

Sirius wasn't anywhere in the common room nor was he in the great hall when Remus went down. In fact he didn't see the boy until he gave up his search and went back to the dorm. There Sirius was huddled on his own bed looking over the spells that Remus had written down the night before.

"I've been looking for you," He told him quietly sitting on the edge of the bed. Sirius looked warily up.

"You're not gonna shout at me too are you?" Remus shook his head no and crossed his legs under himself.

"I told James to apologise. He's going to but I think that you do too. You both said some things and if you want to move on then you can't hold anything over each other," Sirius set the parchment down with a sigh "Please."

"Fine. Here by the way," He tossed something to Remus. Looking down he saw that it was a cupcake with chocolate icing "I got it for you at the kitchens. I thought it might make you happy, you're looking kind of sick," Remus glanced warily up and made a note to himself to check his appearance after this conversation.

He then glanced back at Sirius with an odd thought "You didn't go to the kitchens just for this did you?"

Sirius looked embarrassed and scoffed a half-hearted "No."

"You could have gotten caught," He chided and heard Sirius' muttered 'knew you were gonna shout' "Of course I am. We spent an hour worrying about you. I thought Filch had kidnapped and tortured you."

Sirius laughed "He was close," he patted Remus on the knee "If it makes you feel any better I promise not to do anything nice for you again."

Remus playfully shoved him before telling him "Don't do anything stupid like that again."

"I won't." He promised "Now where's James, I have an apology to make," Remus directed him to the common room.

By the time night had fallen Sirius and James were friends again and seemed to not even acknowledge that there was something amiss in the first place. Peter still cowered whenever James looked over at him but other than that there was no sign of the earlier dispute left in the room. They had bargained again that the continuation of the map should be left until the following Saturday evening so that they weren't too exerted for their lessons for which Remus was grateful for. However there was something he knew the others were bound to notice when the Saturday evening came. He didn't dwell on it too much and decided to face that obstacle when it arose.

The week passed with little to no problems. James and Sirius kept out of trouble to make their Saturday free and even participated in classes. Slughorn had started eyeing the two pure-bloods greedily ever since James had answered the correct solution to a shrinking potion on Monday. Remus had to hide a grin whenever he asked them to stay behind after the lesson.

Professor Kettleburn had concluded that the unicorns weren't going to show up to the males when, Again, they were stranded outside with nothing to study so he sent them in to look at the theory on unicorns instead. It meant that they had a whole period to themselves which Remus took advantage of to get most of his weekend homework done and even some further reading so as not to be caught behind. Peter had tried to take Remus' lead but failed when some Ravenclaw managed to get a hold of some fizzing whizbee's and was gladly handing them out.

To be honest the only odd thing that Remus noted in the passing week was Sirius' changing attitude towards him. Like on Sunday he kept venturing out late at night and returning with chocolatey goods for Remus' consumption. Whenever asked Sirius would just say that he wanted to do something nice for him. He let it slide on the fact that he enjoyed a midnight cupcake and by Thursday didn't sleep until Sirius was back and handing him something nice to eat.

Friday came much too quickly for Remus and he could hardly contain himself in his seat. His bones stretched uncomfortably and his legs ached to be stretched. When the last class let out he was more than happy to suggest a race back to Gryffindor tower "Last one there has to do my charms homework!" He called halfway up the hallway. He heard muffled shouts before James was neck and neck with him.

James won when Remus had to stop to say the password meaning that the boy only had to wait for the portrait to open and vault into the common room to claim victory. Laughing and panting James pulled Sirius into a half hearted hug and tugged him up the stairs for them all the catch their breaths. Remus was having none of it though, he was too wound up and just waited for them to be on a flat surface before he brought James into a wrestling match.

It carried on for the rest of the evening that the others tried to engage in quieter activities only to be thwarted by his hyper self. When four hit Remus made his excuses of getting something from the kitchens to tide him over until tea and made his way out. The others didn't offer to come since they were recovering from his last tackled wrestling match so making more excuses wasn't necessary.

The shack was still cold since the snow hadn't melted and froze him rigid when he stowed his clothes away. He hated winter moons for the sole reason that they didn't often stop when day broke. Just last moon Pomphrey had to wait until the howls died down before deeming it safe to retrieve him a full twenty four hours later. He hoped that this wasn't the case again as he sat on the hard bed. Ten minutes later his jaw broke and he forgot about his worries.

It was Monday when he woke up. Pomphrey was fussing at the side of his bed and muttering about the upcoming flying lessons that were restarting in two weeks. She fed him potions that made his throat close up and his toes curl but he knew they were there to make him feel better.

She let him go at lunch telling him that he was to go straight to the dormitory and that he wasn't to use his arm. He didn't know why until he tried to push himself up from the bed and fell promptly down again. It turned out that his wrist had been bitten off around two on Saturday since he was unconscious and had been for some hours when Pomphrey retrieved him. There was a jagged line from where the wrist had been put back on and Remus kept glancing at the lines leading into the separation with fascination and sickening disgust. He had never bitten anything off before and to see that it was still working, if a little painfully, was surreal to him. Pomphrey warned that he couldn't hold anything in it for two days which meant trying to write with his left hand and that it might be a while before it works normally again. There was a potion in his robes that would ensure a full recovery but the when of it was unknown.

The others were off to lunch and classes when Remus returned to the dorm so he stripped and collapsed back in his bed for another two hour nap.

Sirius was next to him when he woke. The room was dark but he could hear the other two outside of the curtains so it couldn't have been that late. He tentatively used his left hand to sit himself up and looked at the notes that Sirius was sorting through. They were the ones from today.

"Where were you?" Sirius muttered not looking at him.

"I-" Remus thought. He had an excuse planned from the beginning of the year and it took some time for him to remember it in his weak state "Visiting my mother."

Sirius did turn to him then with a concerned frown on his face "Why? What's wrong?"

"She's ill. It's a muggle thing and she doesn't trust healers. Dad arranged it that I can see her every month just in case this one is the, you know..." He trailed hoping his lie was believable.

"Oh," Sirius picked at the bedspread "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"I didn't tell you," Remus said with a smile trying to alleviate the tense atmosphere.

Sirius scoffed "True. Here," He handed the notes over "They're not very good since I didn't know I'd be needing to share them, so..."

"Thanks," Remus sorted through them noting all the little doodles and written conversations that James and Sirius had throughout the day.

"Is he awake?" James called from beyond the curtain.

"Yeah, but he's tired so don't bother him," Sirius shouted back and clapped Remus on his bad arm before sliding out of his bed.

"I'm fine now," He told them following Sirius "I don't suppose the food's been served yet has it?"

It had but that didn't mean that they couldn't go to the kitchens for something. The house elves were, like always, happy to see them and when it was known that the four boys were back in the kitchen Hooky made an appearance and showered them with delicious delights.

Remus kept his word to Pomphrey about not using his wrist but he did have to inform the professors beforehand that his writing utensil was out of commission for the moment. They saw no objection to him reading ahead and making notes with the hand he could write with instead of participating in spellwork.

Unfortunately this made Sirius' interest in him grow. All week the boy had been following Remus like a bloodhound. There was not one place he went that Sirius didn't follow which included the toilet. He was even worse when Friday came and refused to even let Remus shower alone in case he disappeared without him knowing. Remus should have known that a simple explanation wouldn't deter Sirius despite what he claimed and scowled at the hands washing his hair for him in annoyance.

"I do know how shampoo works," He remarked trying not to yank his head out from Sirius' iron grip.

"I know, but you can hardly wash your hair adequately with that dodgy hand of yours," Again Remus had made the excuse that he had fell wrongly on it as an explanation for his sudden injury.

Remus sighed "At least tomorrow is Saturday. Have you been practising the charms I found?"

"Yep," He let Remus rinse his hair on his own before pulling him back for a condition. "Some of them were a bit difficult without a practise ward but I think I'll be able to perform it. Besides you'll tell me if I'm doing something wrong."

This was news to him. He was supposed to be partnered with Peter tomorrow on a trip to the dungeons "But I thought James was going with you?"

"We switched. He complained about being in the library too much so I said that you'd be more than happy to. You don't mind do you?" Remus could hear the sly notes in his lilting voice just begging for Remus to give some objection.

"No, I suppose another go in the library is better than running from Filch," Which was true. He disliked some of the stories the other three had told him about their last exploration into the dungeons. The caretaker had figured out that someone was out after hours and made it his mission to stake the dungeons out to capture them.

"James is taking the cloak with him and Peter so we'll have to be sneaky," He warned.

"They need it more than we do. Besides this isn't our first mission after hours and we certainly didn't have a cloak then," Sirius barked a laugh behind him and let him rinse off the conditioner before he towed him to the towels. "Sirius, really I'm fine."

The library was just as dusty and large as the last time he had been here after hours. It seemed that it took up some kind of transformation in the dark. Instead of a haven for knowledge it became something that warned off those who would want to know too much.

Remus had to keep a tight grip on Sirius to stop the other boy from wandering off down a wrong isle. He hadn't been in the library more than twice and it showed. They stepped over the rope together with Remus' wand held high to cast a light on the books they were looking for before Sirius went to work on disarming them.

"Not to make you uneasy," He mumbled "But if you do get something wrong we may have to run for our lives." Sirius laughed quietly.

"Thanks Remus, you really know how to take the pressure off."

They had managed to retrieve three books in two hours which Remus concluded was a good haul. He made Sirius turn around and go back to the dorm despite the boy wanting to get the whole list. Remus argued and told him that this lot would keep them going for a couple of days. They would come back when they needed the others.

The way back to the dorm was pleasant since they knew that Filch was in the dungeons and therefore they both took their time to stroll down the low lit corridors and skip up the winding staircases.

Once their Remus perused the spoils of their plunder. Many of the books in the restricted section were there because they had content that was beyond the level of most students attending Hogwarts at the time, the only ones Remus imagined ever laying eyes on these books were seventh years that were somehow advanced. The books they had picked up were on unplottable land. The aim was to look through them and find a loophole in their workings that would allow them to make the map.

"Don't read all night Rem, we have other things to do." Sirius was picking up his pyjamas to get changed whilst tugging his trunk open for the spells that they needed to practise. It made Remus smile to think that despite everything they learn making mischief they still hold on to the tradition Sirius and Remus had made in their first month.

"I was thinking about learning that glamour charm. I think it would be useful if we're going to be sneaking around," He said placing the stolen books carefully on his bed before rifling through his drawers for his own notes.

James and Peter returned an hour later to a blonde Sirius who was complaining loudly at the loss of his glossy locks. "No!" He bemoaned "I'm no better than Cissy now. Worse," He grabbed his face and turned it side to side "I make this look good. She'll go spare."

"What's going on?" Peter asked when Sirius' look hadn't been explained right away.

"He messed up his glamour," Remus told him with a smirk.

Peter nodded and watched as James tried to fix Sirius' hair with the charms he knew. Peter turned to him "Don't suppose you know how to fix that?"

Remus felt hid mouth widen "Maybe. I thought I'd let him stew for a bit though, it's fun watching him whine," They both shared a satisfied look. They knew what it was like to be in Sirius' shoes and decided to let him suffer while much like James and Sirius do when they do this thing to them.

"So where did you go?" Peter asked turning away from Sirius' now pink hair.

"Hmm?"

"Last weekend. You went down for something to eat and never came back until Monday. Sirius was going mental, he didn't sleep all of Friday and ended up keeping both of us up on Saturday. James gave up on Sunday and finally stunned him asleep," Remus looked back to where the boys were wrestling for James' wand on Peter's bed.

"He didn't tell me that," And then thought why would he? Sirius wouldn't want anyone to know he was worried. It probably wasn't a done thing where he came from.

"Yeah well he did. He kept accusing us of being awful friends for not caring. But we do care," Peter recovered "It's just that we have different ways of worrying. James kept asking McGonagall in the hall and again in her office. And I went all over the castle and the kitchens to see if you were stuck anywhere like the first week."

Remus felt awful "I'm sorry," He muttered "I didn't mean to- my mum's ill that's all. I have to go see her every month..." And he told his lie for a second time. He hoped that Peter would relate the story to James after this so he wouldn't be cornered a third time.

"That's awful," Peter patted him on the knee "If you need anything..."

"Thanks," he smiled and felt even worse about his deception.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first year almost over and debating whether to change pov for second year. There is a reason for it but still undecided...

The cold of Sirius' hand was what woke him up. During the night it must have slipped under Remus' shirt for warmth and ended waking him up. He rubbed his eyes before removing the hand and placing it back on Sirius' side of the bed.

Darkness crept in through the windows so Remus knew that it was still late enough to get a few more hours of sleep. He tried to lie back down only for his hand to find something sticky on his pillow. Figuring it was some of Sirius' drool he went to the bathroom to clean his hand. But something stopped him, there was something off about the room. Glancing towards Peter and James' bed he could see that the curtains had been thrown aside as if they were both in a mad rush. He didn't like the feeling that was coming over him at the look of the curtains and figured a hand full of drool was better than facing whatever had scared his friends off.

Crawling back under his covers he nudged Sirius to wake him up. There was no response and Remus didn't want to make a big fuss in case whatever it was heard him so he placed his hand over Sirius' mouth and turned his head to face him.

Cold blue eyes stared up at Remus' startled form. He had removed himself from his bed at the sight of those lifeless eyes and swallowed a scream when they neither responded or blinked. He could hear himself whimpering and refused to assess what it was that had took his friends life but knew sooner or later that he would look.

It happened when a creak sounded too close to his bed. Swallowing a sob he tried to lay in his bed without retching and closed the curtain slowly. Sirius was still staring at a blank spot on Remus' person and when he tried to turn him away again he spotted the liquid that he had thought to be drool was too dark in colour. It matched the pool that dented the pillow near his head and the quilt where Sirius had been previously looking. It also matched the stains further down the quilt and one of the colours origin points on Sirius' neck.

Remus didn't even know if he could call it that anymore. Tendons stood out from shredded muscles and he heard himself squeak breathlessly when he could see spots of the pillow where skin should be. It looked like an animal had been at him and Sirius had lost terribly.

Another creak and heavy breathing sounded outside his closed curtain and he wondered if he would be next. If this was it. He closed his eyes and tried to quiet his panting gasps that were filling the room. 'It did no good to panic' he thought as a hand grabbed his arm and he screamed louder than he does every month.

"Remus for Merlin's sake!" he kicked out and heard his foot connect with something as he opened his eyes to the bright light of the sun.

Sirius was looking concerned at him while James was doubled over at the bottom of his bed. "What?" He gasped looking from Sirius to James and to Peter who was standing a good three feet away from his bed.

"You were having a nightmare. Quite bad too, we couldn't wake you up. As of now we're half an hour late for Charms," Sirius said smirking slightly. Remus couldn't help looking at his healthy face and full neck earnestly. It was a dream. Another one then.

"Oh," He finally bit out "Sorry."

"It's fine. So long as you are," Sirius reassured and Remus noticed the worried glance he shared with James.

"I'll just..." He pointed to the bathroom and quickly removed himself from the room.

This was the third time this week that he had woken from a bad dream. The seventh time in two weeks that it had happened. Usually Sirius was still asleep but then he hadn't just spent the night in the dungeons looking for secret passageways. He knew that this was all Peter's fault. And Sirius'. It was their fault that they were so concerned about Remus that they had to make him worry about his excuses. Worry about how he acted and what he said when he was talking about home. He missed when they were all oblivious to where he went but knew that now they had seen him go once, and now that he had made the excuse, it was going to be the norm. He could no longer live without this lie while he was at school and he also could no longer offer his home for Sirius in the summer. Not if his perfectly well mother was going to be there.

He sighed and pulled his hands violently away from the tap when he realised he was rubbing off the phantom blood that had been on them. They were never going to make it to Charms that morning so Remus took his time to collect himself in the shower.

It was always them in the dreams. It alternated which one had been mauled and sometimes it was all of them. Not to mention that he was always the cause of it. The creaking and the panting he heard outside of his bed had revealed itself in the second dream like this to be him. Another him that had distorted itself monstrously into a feral beast covered in blood. There was a particular one where he had seen himself gnawing on Peter's leg before he woke. All talons and fangs with eyes that glowed menacingly from the dark pits that were meant to be eyes.

"Are you okay in there," James' soothing voice asked through the door.

"Be right out," he finished putting his tie on before joining the worried boys in the dorm. "Suppose we'd better get down before we're late to another lesson," they all nodded and made their way out slowly. Sirius handed him a slice of toast that one of them had fetched in the kitchens before they woke him and made idle chatter about anything that came to mind.

"James was thinking of pranking McGonagall but I said to put it off until third year when he's safely in the Quidditch team. Otherwise he'll never get a chance," James also tried to alleviate the mood but often just verbally sparred with Sirius.

None of them mentioned Remus' nightmare for which he was thankful for. The last tremors of the dream were still haunting him and he frequently found himself looking into Sirius' vibrant eyes or watching him swallow.

"You look like a vampire," A quiet observation sounded. He turned to Peter who was nodding his head towards Sirius. "You keep looking at his neck. You're not part vampire are you?" He backed away slightly.

"No," Remus scoffed feeling hurt that such a small sentence could send his friend half way across the corridor. He hoped that they never found if this was Peter's reaction to a vampire.

"Whose not a vampire?" James inquired peering at the both of them. They had ten minutes until Charms started and James had taken the initiative to seat himself on the floor.

"Me," he joined James and nudged Sirius along when he tried to jokingly sit on his lap.

"The floor's dirty," was all he offered before sitting on his bag instead.

"Why would you think he's a vampire Peter? I mean look at him," As if that was all there was needed to disprove such a statement.

"I dunno James, he does have quite a mean streak. Remember the first month we were here," Sirius baited.

"They were asking for it."

"True Sirius and remember that time when you ate the last of his chocolate stash. He locked you out of the common room for two nights," It seemed they were going to talk over Remus' head.

"I just thank Merlin we found the kitchens. Who knows what would have happened when he realised that Peter ate the last of his sugar quills." They were smirking at Peter.

"You what!"

"Guys," Peter whined. "You promised you wouldn't tell."

"Then there's the fact that he kicked me in the stomach this morning. I still haven't received an apology and I doubt I will," James turned the sympathy up by bringing some crocodile tears into the mix.

"Poor you." Sirius leaned over him and patted James' arm "And to think you were all ready to defend him to Peter as well," Remus scoffed and rolled his eyes but folded.

"I'm sorry for kicking you," James just waved him off and nudged him over to Sirius.

"All is forgiven. It didn't hurt that much anyway," Sirius scoffed this time re-enacting what James did this morning by holding his stomach.

The students from Transfiguration arrived then and they were all ushered into the classroom. February had seen the last of the snow since the rain had started again and Remus' monstrous snowman had died the week before. All of Gryffindor had paid homage to the being that had scared them through the month.

The next week was Valentines day and that afternoon saw the four boys in the common room discussing what it was they were going to do for it.

"I mean everyone's going to be loved up so it's only right that we do something to save them from themselves," James ranted. He had the idea that they should prank the whole school and it was quickly being taken up by Peter and Sirius.

"We have the map to attend to," Remus pointed out. They had discovered a couple of theories that would allow them to create the map but it required crossing spells with one another, meaning that the dorm was becoming a volatile zone full of experimental magic.

"We can put it off for one day Remus," James argued "Besides we haven't pulled a prank in ages. I really want to use my cloak again," He whined dropping pitifully to his knees in front of him.

"Why do you need me involved," He tried and only received a aghast expression from the messy haired boy.

"Why do we need you? You're our friend, nay, our brother in this crusade against the school. We need your skills to pull this off," He ranted.

"You and Sirius are more than capable of pulling it off without me," He didn't want to get involved in something that would just result in him getting a detention. His birthday was coming up after all and he didn't want to spend it cleaning cauldrons.

"What about me?" Peter called up. Remus just scowled in his direction which made the boy quieten down. He still hadn't forgave him for eating Remus' sweets.

"But you have the best ideas. Well, not the best, but the most creative. Well..."

"This isn't persuading me," He looked to his left to see what Sirius thought about all this.

"Leave him alone James," Was all the boy said before he turned back to his essay that they were all meant to be writing.

"But-"

"Now," And he pushed James' parchment towards him again. The boy picked himself up from where he had dropped to his knees and made his way to the blank parchment.

He knew the matter wasn't dropped but kept telling himself that he would make it up to James after his birthday. For now he just concentrated on the many ways that the troll war could have been prevented.

He had another dream that night which left him shaking. The mirror fragments around him showed him nothing facing up to the bathroom ceiling. His friends were huddled in the corner with their wands pointed threateningly out towards him. They were scared like Peter was earlier and had every right to be as Remus' claws skated across the smooth floor. He couldn't pick himself up since he was unused to his bulk and the floor provided no grip around him. All that could have helped were the bits of mirror shining up at him. He finally got the courage to pick himself up again when he saw Peter trying to speak in Remus' dream scape. The words didn't reach him but they didn't have to. The look of disgust on Peter's face was enough to convey what he was trying to say.

The glass cut into his skin and the light that reflected from somewhere in the darkness shone brightly into his eyes. He made the mistake of looking into one of the mirror shards and caught pits of black with gold shining out of them.

"Again," Sirius sighed when Remus blinked from gold to blue.

"Sirius?" He croaked feeling his throat strain on the word.

"I'm going to ask Pomphrey for something. This is getting out of control," Remus sat up and halted the boys movement.

"Don't. I'm just worried about something. Once I figure it out I'm sure the dreams will stop," He hoped and wondered how he was going to stop himself from worrying about his secret.

Sirius sighed but gave in to Remus' request. Thankfully it was a Saturday which meant that they had a divided team of duellers in the morning and experimental magic on the other side of the dorm and they switched in the afternoon before pairing off into their other groups for the nightly excursion of exploration. Remus had looked up a particular charm he was excited to try out and hoped that the afternoon would come quick.

Breakfast was a quick affair with the boys loading their plates and eating as much as they could before storming back to the dorm to get to work. Peter and Remus were in charge of the experimental of the morning and they had decided to try and charm the object with both a navigation and searching spell. They used a muggle map which Remus' dad was more than happy (if not suspicious) to post to him. If the ink they put on the map would stay there then they knew that they could transfer the magic onto another sheet of parchment and start plotting the map.

"There it stayed on longer this time," Peter chimed but Remus just scowled. The aim was for it to stay permanently not just for a little longer.

"We'll try the other spell with the seeking one. Pass the book over," He pointed towards the large tome that Peter had some difficulty moving. Remus wondered when the boy would realise it was easier to levitate them instead of carrying them.

"Are you sure it wont end up like last time?" He was referring to the incident last week where a mixed spell had resulted in the glass on the windows to implode in the dorms.

"It shouldn't. At worst it's probably going to attack someone's cat," He commented filtering through the heavy pages until he found the page he wanted.

"Best hope it's not McGonagall," Peter joked.

"Hmm?"

"She's an animagus," he explained "Her form's a cat. I thought it would be..." Remus offered the boy a smile.

"It was. I just didn't get it." He jotted down more notes on the spell he was using to make sure that it shouldn't be too volatile "I didn't know wizards could actually do that. Change their forms."

"What's with the attitude Lupin?" James jeered from the onslaught of a levicorpus. "Jealous because you'd probably end up an owl," he sent a jelly legs and a boil hex back.

"Owls have talons and can fly. If that's your version of a tame animal then I seriously fear for your brain," He quipped hearing Sirius snort in mid spell.

"Whatever," He brushed off "I'd love to be one though. Wouldn't you Sirius. I'd be something majestic like a lion."

"Or a squirrel," Remus muttered making Peter laugh.

James just stuck his tongue out at him "What would you be Sirius?" He fired another hex and shielded from Sirius'.

"I dunno. Something cool though," He got past James' defences and had the boys wand in his hand in seconds.

"I think I'd like to be a shark," Peter mused and Remus gave him a condescending look.

"You do realise that you would only be able to use your form underwater," he clarified and watched as Peter re-evaluated his choices.

"A rhino then. I could charge at all the Slytherins and make them scream," He laughed.

"Hmm, that would be fun," Sirius mused handing James' wand back after holding it out of reach. "I think I'd like to be something sneaky though. Something that could blend into everyday life like McGonagall. She probably takes naps on the Hogwarts roof and spies on the naughty students. The best thing would be though that we wouldn't know it was her since she would look like a cat." He widened his stance again "Something cool like that would suit me."

"You could sneak into the girls dorms easily," Peter joined liking the idea of being something common.

"Yeah!" James agreed

"And there was me thinking that we would have two more years of peace before the idea of girls consumed the group," Remus lamented hearing James and Peter huff and Sirius chortle.

"Too right Rem," Sirius dismissed and disarmed James again.

That afternoon, once they had finished their food in the great hall, they paired off with James and Remus going off into the dungeons while Peter and Sirius took over the map. Sirius whined constantly about being left with the map for longer since he had spent most of the afternoon agonising over it.

Filch was still sniffing around the dungeons despite not having found anyone in two months. They often joked in the dorm about moving stuff around to mess with the caretaker but usually when it came to it they chickened out. James had them both huddled under the cloak as Filch passed once again and Remus smothered a laugh at the cat that practically ran after him. James usually liked to partner with Remus for exploration because of that fact. Apparently the cat could smell them under the cloak and frequently gave chase to them resulting in some close moments. But with Remus the thing didn't hang around and seemed to like leading Filch away from them more often than not.

James took the cloak off as soon as they were out of sight and shared a smirk with Remus. They were next to the entrance to the Slytherin common room and made their way through the corridor to the stairs that would lead further into the castle. Sirius had discovered it last week and was almost tempted to go down. It would have meant he would miss their group curfew though and he ended up telling James to look the next week.

"What do you suppose is down there than?" James asked leading Remus to the old wooden door.

"Guess we'll find out," He replied taking the initiative to unlock the door.

The stairs were dark with no light to shed any insight as to what was lurking in its depths. James lit the end of his wand and cast it downwards to see if he could make out anything. Apart from a cobweb with a slightly larger than normal spider there was nothing but darkness.

Remus felt a nudge on his back and held the wall to stop himself from falling down the stairs. Glaring back he huffed when James cast an eyebrow in the direction of the stairs. He lit the end of his wand before taking them slowly. The ground was smooth under his feet and the walls close together meaning that they had to walk one behind the other no matter what.

It soon opened out into a chamber of little size that sectioned off into three ways. Remus glanced back and saw the tip of James' lit wand follow into the chamber before he to stopped dead. So far they had an hour and a half before they were required to go back to the dorm but with so many ways they could possible only explore one section tonight.

"We could split up," James suggested looking interestedly in the section to the right.

"No," Remus immediately replied. He didn't like the idea of splitting up "Just pick a way and we'll do that tonight and Sirius can do the other next week."

James walked over to the door leading to the right and opened it with a casual "What makes you think he's coming down here next week," and leapt back from the door in case something was to come out.

"With all the whining he was doing you'd have to petrify him not to come. Especially after this," He followed James down another shorter flight of stairs that held solid wall on one side and iron bared chambers on the next. "Dungeons," He touched one of the bars which was solid under his finger.

"I knew it," James cackled and ran up to the third chamber down before opening the bars. "An old place like this was bound to have an actual dungeon!"

They explored for an hour in the chambers that were down there. The corridor they were in held thirteen prisons before abruptly closing off with a dead end. Remus thought it was kind of morbid that the founders had a dungeon like this in the castle.

There was nothing of interest in any of the cells. It seemed that whoever, if they had, inhabited these cells had taken their belongings or anything of interest with them. James refused to head back up the dorm even though he had explored all thirteen of them more than once and it took Remus ten minutes of convincing for them to head back up.

"You can come next week with Sirius," He bargained leading the forlorn boy up the stairs to the other dungeons. He did a quick look out before dragging James up. Filch was still otherwise occupied some place else.

"Fine," He took the cloak out just in case and 'nox'ed his light.

Sirius was livid when they regaled their story to him. He pleaded with James to let him go to the dungeons next week and even though James had already decided he would he made sure that Sirius begged for it. Remus was just content to sit back on the bed and watch them argue. Peter had long since abandoned the map project for sleep. Apparently they had some luck in that department as well as the dungeon. Sirius mentioned that they had gotten the ink to stay on the map so far and it was all just a matter of waiting to see if it would last the night. Usually spells would ware off or fade after a couple of hours so as long as the ink stayed on the map until tomorrow morning they wouldn't know if they had managed to make it plotable.

Remus hoped it would stay. It would mean that they could finally start getting the foundations of the castle started and also that there would be no more arguments like the one taking place. If they managed to start drawing the map then there would be no more waiting in the dorm whist two of them were exploring. All of them would be.

"Well I suppose since you did such a good job with the map that maybe you could come next week," James relented and put an end to the threats Sirius was sending his way.

"Good," He agreed and bid James goodnight. The messy haired boy just waved over to Sirius' bed where Remus was sitting before retiring himself. "Budge over Rem." He got up and tugged the curtains closed while Sirius warmed the quilt up. "Try not to kick to much tonight. I'm still recovering from last night," He joked when Remus finally lay next to him.

"Sorry," he apologised looking at the bruises that Sirius was pitifully whining about. "I'll try to control my unconscious body." They both smirked with Sirius' morphing into something concerned "Don't," he warned knowing that he was going to ask about the nightmares again. "I'll be fine just..."

"Okay," He relented and stole most of the pillow. Remus rolled his eyes before getting comfy again "Hey Rem?"

"Hmm?"

"Happy Birthday," Sirius whispered and smirked at him when he opened his eyes.

He decided by eight the next morning that he really shouldn't have told James when his birthday was. For one, when he woke up he punched James in the face, it was his own fault really since he knew that it was obvious Remus was having another bad dream. The next reason why he shouldn't have told James was because he had transformed the dorm, whilst Remus had been pitifully whimpering, into something a unicorn wouldn't even touch.

Gold and Red streamed everywhere with lions that actually roared at him whenever he passed. Then there were the cannons he had hidden around the school. Remus didn't know when James had done it but he was constantly on alert ever since he passed a chair in the common room. He was still wiping off red streamers that had stuck themselves to his person when he entered the great hall.

Sirius had ran ahead and piled high his plate with what looked from afar to be chocolate cupcakes. "We had the elves make a special breakfast for you," James told him sauntering over to Sirius. He may have given in to the cupcakes.

The others were sharing his birthday breakfast of chocolate pastries when the owls came in. As expected his mum and dad had sent him a card with some chocolate as well as something wrapped in bright blue wrapping paper. The others were practically bouncing in their seats for him to open his present so he drew out reading the card for as long as possible.

"Open it already!" Sirius near screeched.

Remus smirked at him "Come on Remus we have our own prezzies to give," James begged.

He took apart the paper and was a little stunned at the stuffed wolf toy that fell out. He took the little note that came with it. Saw this and thought of you, love dad. Remus was half tempted to laugh at his dad's idea of a joke.

"Cute," James offered from his side so Remus passed the wolf to him.

"Where are these presents I've been promised then?" He asked them. James set the wolf in his lap before reaching under the table with the other two for their presents.

James had gotten him a ticket "It's for the Quidditch world cup! It's on over the summer and I thought we could all go. Don't worry Pete I've got one for you too," he grinned and explained about how it was a Potter tradition to go whenever it was hosted in England. Sirius already had a ticket since his parents were making an appearance for social purposes and since James didn't know if the other two had he got them tickets.

"This must have-"

"Nonsense!" James argued before Remus could object "We're going and that's that!"

Peter had gotten him a new scarf since his old one had died tragically in the second week of experimental spellcasting. As well as some sugar quills.

"Just thought it would make up for the ones I ate," He added sheepishly.

"You're forgiven Pete," he smiled and held out his hand for Sirius' present. It was small and neatly wrapped leaving no gaps to claw at which meant that Remus had to pry it open with a knife because he had no fingernails to speak of. Inside was a black box that opened to a clasp for a cloak. It looked expensive and when Remus tried to pick it up he realised that it was pure silver.

He dropped it to the table with a hiss and poured most of his pumpkin juice on his hand to relieve the burning. He held his eyes shut against the stinging and fought back tears, only looking up when a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Mister Lupin are you alright?" It was professor Dumbledore. He knew the answer to his own question already and was just waiting for Remus to unclench his hand from inside the jug of water. "Come along and we'll make sure Poppy has a look at it." He held Remus' arm steady while he tried to bite back the lingering pain and stand up. He didn't dare look at his friends as he left the hall.

Pomphrey managed to put a salve on his hand that was cooling his good hand down considerably. Dumbledore had left him in the hospital wing with a smile before he went back to the great hall for breakfast. The school nurse had said that he would need to use his other hand whilst the salve did its work before she carted him off to the common room for the rest of the day.

They were seated in the big chairs when he got back. Most of the other students were still asleep since it was a Sunday so they managed to secure a whole section to themselves. His presents were laid out on the table in front of them. Save the clasp which Sirius was fingering with a frown. They all looked up when he sat down next to them but didn't say anything.

He finally knew that he should break the silence "I really like your presents," He tried.

James nodded "That's good."

"How's your hand," Peter asked before being bumped harshly by James.

"A bit painful and I can't use it for the rest of the day," He told them smiling at Peter to show it was alright. "I should have told you that I'm allergic to silver," He finally looked at Sirius when he spoke and watched as the boy met his gaze. He looked a bit confused but relieved that he finally got an answer as to why Remus had to leave the hall like that.

"That's a weird thing to allergic to," Peter said and was bumped again by James who even glared at him this time.

"Not really," A high voice sounded behind him "A lot of people are allergic to metal." It was Lily who was looking at the clasp in Sirius' hand. "I'm guessing you had a reaction to it then?" He nodded. She turned to the others "It happened at Christmas when I asked him to put my new necklace on me. There was a horrible mark."

"It's still there," Sirius said turning to look at her. She looked sheepish for a moment and grasped that the others weren't as fond of her presence as Remus seemed to be feeling and left with a 'Happy Birthday.' "I should have known," Sirius muttered.

"You weren't to though. I should have told you," he argued "I really do like it," He offered.

"You can't wear it though." He scoffed and chucked it into his pocked "I knew I should have gotten you something else. What boy wants a clasp for his birthday."

"No! I like it," which he did. It was really a nice clasp. There was a lion head that stared up at you and Remus would have bet anything that it was magical in some way. He loved little things like that. "Why don't you wear it instead?" He asked "I'd get to see it but you'd wear it," Sirius just looked at him like he had went mad.

"That's not what a present's supposed to do," Remus just looked at it again and felt himself settle on the idea of Sirius wearing it.

"Sure it is. I'm meant to get enjoyment out of it. And if I see you wearing it I can see how it works. It is magical right?" He asked eagerly and urged Sirius to get it out again. He watched as the boy attached it to his robe before pulling another side closer to clasp on to the other side of the lion's head.

As soon as the two were in place the lion opened it's mouth in a mock roar and stayed there until Sirius pushed the nose of it and it released the other side smoothly. Once the demonstration was complete Remus knew that he was going to have Sirius wear it if only so he could watch it roar. Magic was really something.

After breakfast James urged Remus down to the Quidditch pitch so that James could impart some wisdom onto him. In reality it was Remus holding onto James for dear life as he treated him to a birthday fly and Sirius shouting insults from the stands. Peter was on the other side encouraging James into doing death defying stunts with Remus on board for which Remus shouted that.

"Peter I swear to Merlin shut up now or Sirius being locked out for two nights will be nothing to what I do to you!"

He vaguely heard Sirius egging Peter on to shout more stunts to James but was too busy trying not to die. It was when they flew dangerously close to the whomping willow that Remus feared enough to take charge. "Turn around!"

"What?" James called back.

"Turn around before we're knocked off!" He screeched trying to turn James himself. The boy stopped and turned around to get Remus to repeat himself but he didn't even know if he would have gotten anything out.

One branch swiped and hit James' broom sending them sideways and further into the whacking zone. Realising the peril that they were in James tried to dodge, as well as he could, the thick branches. They knocked the broom around like a child playing with a ball and as soon as they thought they were out of danger another one hit them. Remus didn't know how he hadn't fallen and guessed it was because of his death grip on James' ribs.

Two more shoves and one close call Remus could feel his leg starting to ache as the pain from the branches finally registered. James had been hit in the head on that last one and Remus knew they were going to have to think of a way out. He spotted it when two branches waved their way back to prepare for another hit.

"James," He called sitting up straighter to reach his ear "See those two branches," He pointed "They're going to come towards us any second. You need to aim for the base of the tree where the branches meet," He pointed down to the place where the two intersected. "As soon as they start getting closer it's going to open up. Start diving when I tell you," He commanded and felt another branch batter his probably shattered leg. The two branches had gained enough distance for a hard hit and were starting to close in. He focused on the gap whilst James was dodging another wayward branch. The gap had started to open "Now!"

James dived and soon enough the branches hit where they had once been and the gap was big enough for James' broom with them both on it to fit through. He skirted the ground and Remus watched in horror as the tree seemed to know they were under it's branches and began to fall onto them. He urged James faster and they had just cleared the area when a gust of wind from the fallen tree propelled them into the open doors of the castle.

The tail on James' broom was shattered the moment it hit off the door which meant that he had lost control over which way they went. They ended up knocking over more suits of armour than Remus knew existed in the castle before James managed to get the broom to come to a skidding halt. He flew from the sudden momentum of the stop onto the floor, pulling James with him.

Sirius and Peter came charging in just as McGonagall came down with Filch. She demanded to know what was going on which James was more than happy to tell her. Filch protested that they had almost destroyed a Hogwarts relic and Remus had to hide his smirk since he knew better about the tree's planting. James was livid that Dumbledore didn't mention the existence of the tree for which McGonagall couldn't see any fault in. Somehow they avoided detention for their activities and were sent to the hospital wing with a grumbling McGonagall holding James' broom at length.

"Ow!" James whined as Pomphrey attended to the bleeding scratch on his head. "This is awful. My broom is gone, I'm injured and what's worse is that I have to wait until next Christmas for another one."

"Is that all your concerned about?" Remus called from his sick bed. The knee had been severely bruised and in need of looking at. "We almost died and you're complaining about your broom."

"But it was such a good broom," James moaned and fell heavily back onto his own bed. Pomphrey went to go get more dittany for them.

"Such a good broom," Remus got up from his own bed and lightly smacked James when he got onto his "I," hit "am never," another hit "going riding with you," he got him in the ribs in between James' laughingly batting hands "again!"

"Alright Remus," He called "Sirius help!" and Remus felt two hands gingerly holding him back.

"We'll get him later Remus," Sirius promised sending an evil look at James.

The boy just writhed on the bed and whined that "Everyone's out to get me!"

"Serves you right for trying to kill Remus on his birthday!" Peter chimed from the chair next to James' bed.

"Even you Peter? Oh why, why must you turn them so young?" He called dramatically to Sirius.

They both smiled at each other ignoring James' dramatics. Pomphrey gave them the okay after the feast in the great hall meaning a trip to the kitchens was required. When James announced that "The Birthday boy has arrived!" The elves went nuts and were delivering things to Remus that he didn't even want.

A cake was made and candles appeared out of nowhere for him alongside the bountiful feast. He made his wish almost as soon as it was set on the table just so he could have some cake. It was three layers of chocolatey heaven which Remus would hoard for days to come.

Finally they retired to the dorm where they changed lazily into their pyjamas vowing to never eat that much again. James collapsed into his bed the first chance he got telling all of them to leave him in the morning if he doesn't wake up. Peter stayed up with Sirius and Remus longer. He pulled out a wizarding chess set that some third year had left in the common room and tried to teach Remus how to play before annihilating Sirius.

"I'm telling you he's cheating," He muttered when Peter went to the toilet.

"He is not. Just face the fact that someone's better at you," Remus smirked and settled more comfortably next to his chest. "Hey Sirius."

He turned "Yeah?"

"I think I might go in my bed tonight," He said. It was something he had been thinking about this morning on the way down to breakfast.

"Okay. Make sure you close the curtains though. I know you like them open sometimes but I can never get to sleep with them," He said trying to figure out Peter's strategy.

"Actually I was thinking about going in alone. Y'know, you sleep in yours and me in mine," This time he had Sirius' full attention.

"But why?" He seemed genuinely confused at why Remus would want to sleep alone in his own bed. Despite the fact it was weird for them to be sharing in the first place.

"Because I don't like waking up and expecting you to be doubled over in pain. I've kicked you more times than I would have liked this past week along. At least this way one of us will get some sleep Sirius," He didn't really want to himself since he had grown accustomed to there being another person there but knew that Sirius did need to have a bed partner who wouldn't kick him silly if it was meant to be comforting to both of them.

"No," the boy said "I don't want to and neither do you so don't try and kick me out. I don't care how many times you kick me Remus I sleep better with you around than I do on my own," and turned back to the game. It seemed that Sirius had settled the manner since Peter came out soon afterwards and finished defeating Sirius' chess army.

They both ignored Remus' suggestion for the rest of the night. Peter had defeated Sirius three to one before the third year whose chess set Peter had taken knocked on their door for it back. After that they had four games of exploding snap with Peter keeping well away from the deck of cards after the incident before Christmas. They called it a night when they spent half an hour trying to give Remus' new stuffed wolf a good name. The argument between whether to stay true to the mythological magic of Remus' name and call the wolf Romulus and calling it Mr Snuffles was what finally prompted them to realise it was time for bed.

"I still stand by snuffles," Sirius declared sliding in next to Remus. He had shut the curtains closest to the window like Sirius suggested and was watching the boy throw the wolf in the air a few times.

"I dunno. Peter was right about the poeticness. After all he is a wolf and the children of Rome were raised by one," he teased.

Sirius turned to him with a mocking grin "Well you weren't and I still call you snuffles. Poetics is dumb and you know it."

"You never call me snuffles," He chuckled as Sirius put the wolf into some kind of dance.

"Really? Well we'll have to change that." He tossed the wolf around a bit more before pulling it close to himself "Are you sure that it doesn't do anything?"

"What are pure-blood stuffed toys like?" He asked instead.

Sirius shrugged "Never had one. But James said that his stuffed dragon could fly. Don't suppose snuffles howls at the moon or something?"

"No." He took the wolf off him and put it in the middle of them "It's a muggle toy so there's nothing magical about it. All it does is lie there until you move it."

"Seems boring," Sirius commented lying next to him and putting the wolf on his chest.

"To you maybe."

It was in mock howl now "Why did they get you one anyway? I would've thought you'd be too old for a stuffed toy."

"Says the person playing with it," He sighed not knowing how to explain his dads joke present "They saw it and thought of me," He settled on and thought back to what Peter had said about poetics. "Mum's a mythology fan which is why I'm named Remus and Dad spends every opportunity he can to remind me of it. The wolf was just a little joke." Which was the partial truth in any case.

"Damn," Sirius muttered "Guess we'll have to call it Romulus after all." He nosed the wolf close to Remus' face which he batted off. "Night Rem," He called and settled down to sleep.

"Night," He muttered back smirking at the fact that Sirius hadn't given the 'boring' stuffed wolf back.

He waited until Sirius had started snoring before getting up and moving towards the window. The room was still cold since it was still February not to mention there was a draft from the window. The moon hung half full and glaring back at him. The reason for his sleepless nights.

He didn't know what to do anymore. Ignoring what was happening while he was gone wasn't helping anything. It made them worry and people who were afraid often went outside boundaries to help those in need. They looked deeper into everything that someone did and Remus didn't need the scrutiny. He had already laid himself bare. They knew about the scars, the disappearances and now the silver. It wouldn't take much more prying before they started piecing things together. He only thanked Merlin that they were saving Werewolves until second and third year. Who knows what would have happened if they compared the signs of the wolf to him.

He needed to stop worrying and do it quick. He needed to keep to his lies and pretend that there's nothing out of the ordinary going on. He couldn't make them worried and he wouldn't. Now he just had to convince his subconscious to agree with him.

"This is all your fault," He heard himself utter to the window. Although whether he was talking to his reflection or the moon he wasn't certain.

Turning away from the window he wished that tonight would be a good night. A night where he would wake up without punching or kicking someone and in the morning have the energy to think up ways to get James back for trying to kill him.

Maybe he could hunt down all those streamer cannons he thought with a smile. A cunning plan starting to form in his sleepy mind as he stole his pillow back from Sirius.


	7. Chapter 7

James had been sulking ever since his broom had tragically died. Remus watched from the side-lines slightly amused at the boys suffering both because it meant no new pranks on the horizon and the other because he was still feeling a little resentful to James for trying to kill him. True it wasn't really his fault but Remus couldn't really control his emotions.

They were all seated the in the great hall the weekend after Valentines day. In his sulk James had skipped over even thinking about ruining the love filled teens day and elected to spend the afternoon weeping into his pillow. McGonagall had made it imperative that they all show up in the hall for dinner since the headmaster had an important announcement to make. Thankfully he was waiting until after desert otherwise Remus would have probably tuned him out.

The hall went silent as Dumbledore approached the podium. He sent the students a soft smile before his voice carried towards the end of the hall "Myself and the staff have been talking and it has come to our attention that a new rule should be instated in this school. As most of you might of heard a little troublemaker almost got himself hurt last Sunday and since then the staff has been meeting for the week to ensure that something like that doesn't happen again." Remus didn't think this was good. It seems like the other students agreed since James was quickly on the receiving end of icy stares. "We have decided that first years shall not be allowed to bring their brooms to school. If they wish to bring one they will have to wait until their second year. Thank you for listening," to which he retired to his seat.

The other students had quickly relaxed when they realised that the rule wouldn't apply to them. The same couldn't be said about the first years though. Ravenclaw looked positively livid at James and Remus half expected them to start hissing like Slytherins.

"What's wrong with them?" he asked Sirius under his breath. He kept one eye on them in case they started to advance.

Sirius sighed before nudging Remus to get up also "They start training for the Quidditch team in first year. Despite not being able to play until second they like to know what their strengths are. It also means that they have to bring their own brooms since the teachers won't allow them to use the schools outside of flying lessons." No wonder they were angry.

The four boys slowly backed away from the hostility directed at them and made quick work of the stairs back to the common room. James went back into his sulk and flung himself dramatically on his bed. Sirius on the other hand just kicked the leg hanging near to him before digging through Remus' for some parchment.

"I was thinking of going to explore the rest of the dungeons," Sirius told him "I want to see them for myself."

"You do that," Remus agreed "But there's something we need to establish before we think about going off tonight," Peter and Sirius were all for hearing it. Remus pulled James up so that he could too. "Who's actually going to draw the map. I mean out of all of us can any of you draw? And how are we going to structure it in the first place. Like diagrams or a key and objects that show specific things." He could tell the others hadn't been thinking about this and now that it was out it seemed like such an obvious problem.

"Well," Sirius started before trailing off into silence. He seemed to think on it a while before his train of thought caught up to him "How about this," He proposed "We all take a scrap of parchment tonight and draw down what we think. We do it how we think the map should look and when we come back to the dorm we can judge who's is better."

"What if no one's is," James moaned "What if it ends up another failure." They all groaned at the reference to his destroyed broom.

"Don't you think you're over exaggerating this a bit," Peter whined. James snapped up his face betrayed as his number one fan went over to the dark side "I mean it was just a broom. Not to mention an accident. Shouldn't you just be glad that you're alive?" the last came out as a question as James' face became redder.

"'Just a broom' my god Pettigrew it wasn't just a broom. It was marvellous piece of craftsmanship! A broom isn't something you..." Remus tuned him out and gestured for Sirius to join him on their nightly excursion.

He smirked before picking up more parchment and joining him in the common room. They both made plans about where they were going to be and what time to meet up before they were off. Remus had volunteered to explore the kitchens since he had heard it was near the Hufflepuff common room. If they could break into that it would mean they had access to three of the four houses.

The kitchen was teeming with house elves when he popped in. Five minutes later he had to beg to be let out though but made sure he took a few treats with him. He sat outside of the portrait for a couple of minutes munching on a brownie as he sketched out the kitchens and the floor it was situated on. He left out the details surrounding it and focused on the placement of the kitchens before folding the parchment back up and looking for the common room.

He knew that the common rooms were reflections on what the founders had thought their houses would be like. Gryffindor was in a tower since he guessed that was where most of the saving took place in the story books he read. Slytherin was in the dungeon locked away from the impurities the other houses cast upon them. Not to mention a criminal in a dungeon usually had some level of ambition and cunning to be landed in such a place.

But what about Hufflepuff? They were loyal which didn't really tell him much. He huffed and started pacing the corridors. He looked for anything that was amiss in the corridor. The kitchen was behind an inconspicuous painting which made itself known to Remus because it was the only painting that didn't move. Remus checked the other paintings in and around the corridor but they all had people inside of them. So perhaps it wasn't a painting.

He moved onto the doors and noted quickly the insides of them on his scrap of parchment. The rooms proved fruitless. The doors he went through had nothing odd inside apart from one that he saw something rattling in a desk. Remus sighed and drifted on top of some barrels for a think. He kicked the bottom absently and pulled out his parchment to neaten his work up. He hoped Sirius had a more interesting night and wondered at what he could have found in the dungeons. Something interesting like a skeleton probably and Remus was missing it because he had wanted to find the stupid Hufflepuff common room. What good would knowing its location be anyway? He only wanted to know because he could. He was here and he had the initiative to find it. Or so he thought.

It was times like this that really made Remus think about how much he had taken for granted. Who was he to break school rules and break into restricted places? He had been allowed here on the kindness of an old man. Butt instead of devoting himself to showing how grateful he was he was sitting on a barrel trying to invade students privacy on a prideful whim.

Footsteps sounded from the edge of the corridor. Jumping from his seat Remus hid himself in one of the rooms and watched from the gap in the door as two students walked hand in hand. They were in their school robes, one of them being a Slythetin and the female a Hufflepuff. They embraced tenderly at the kitchens painting before the Slytherin boy left. Remus un-clenched his face to watch as the girl skipped over to the barrels he had been sitting on and tap one of them five times. The barrels parted to reveal a small door to which she disappeared into.

Remus felt his previous wallowing escape him. It was here, he had been right! Looking to make sure no one was coming down the corridor he went over to the barrels and made a note of which one she had tapped. He was about to tap it himself when his wand glowed red signalling his lack of time left.

Cursing his friends as he stomped back to Gryffindor Remus couldn't help feeling elated at his discovery. Now there was only Ravenclaw to break and they would have access to every students room in the school. He knew that he should feel a little worried with what his friends might do with that information but chose to think about it another day.

Peter was the only one there when he got back. Apparently he had went to look in the great hall before coming back and showed Remus his map. It was neater than his and easier to understand. If anything he knew that his artistic skills wouldn't be used for the maps creation.

He held off telling Peter about his discovery until the other two had returned. James had taken a risk and went to Filch's room so there was little chance of seeing him again. Sirius turned up a ten minutes later with a nice story about some rat skeletons he had found. They ventured down into the pipes of the school and Sirius had a theory that there was something down there killing them.

"They're rats," Remus objected "They were probably killed by cats and rotted away during the years."

Sirius shook his head "It's not like that. The way they're positioned doesn't look like a cats kill."

They left the discussion at that since James emerged triumphant in the doorway. He slammed his parchment down on Peters bed before hopping next to the disturbed boy and crowing about his stint in Filch's..

He hadn't been caught and told them all about the torture devices he had hidden in there. Some of them were nightmarish to Remus and for once he was glad the caretaker couldn't use magic. Who knows what creative punishments he would have thought up.

"So what do you think?" James asked pulling all four scraps together. He already knew that his was the best presented and Remus could tell he was just waiting for them to acknowledge it.

"You have the best Potter," Sirius gave and they all sighed at James' triumphant whoop.

"So I guess this means you'll be staying here and drawing whilst the rest of us tour the castle," Remus told him. He tried to keep his face serious despite the devastated look on James' face.

"But-"

"No come on Potter," Sirius joined "You have the best skills so it's only fair that you draw up what we find. We can't force any more work onto you after all," he teased.

"It won't be so bad James," Peter chimed quietly "Just think of what we'll have by the end of it."

Remus was the first to cave into laughter. James' face had reached beyond a pathetic puppy dog look and was full on house elf like. Peter and Sirius joined in soon after when he was forced to dodge James' swipes.

Now that they had all finished establishing their artist it was time for them to pool together their ideas. Remus gave James his hastily scribbled work on the kitchens and glanced at the scratched markings of the great hall.

"I don't think this is going to work," Peter worried. They all looked at him like he was mad. Weeks of work had been put into an idea he had thought up and he was having doubts now.

"And why is that?" Remus growled.

Peter paled a little and even Remus was taken aback at the animalistic undertone in his voice. Peter glanced at the others before smiling pleasantly back at Remus like nothing was wrong. He glanced towards the other two who were shooting Peter warning looks. He was missing something here "It's nothing bad Remus. Just that I think we started off wrong. We need to start in the middle or at the bottom and work our way up. Otherwise we'll have twenty seven different maps because we hadn't thought to get the information in the right order."

Now that he had heard about it Remus conceded that Peter had a point. The way they had gathered their information meant that James would be drawing blindly a whole floor of the castle before getting to the bits that had been noted down. The only relevant one that was in the pile was Sirius' since his was the lowest in the castle. Then again that was what they had thought about the Slytheirn common room and the potions classrooms before Sirius had discovered the other dungeons.

"Peter's right," James agreed when the silence had grown uncomfortable. "Tomorrow I say we go with Sirius to the dungeons and explore all of it properly. All of us this time," He clarified "So that we can build a foundation for the map."

"No," Remus argued "We need to start at the top. There could be something below the dungeons for all we know. Not to mention all the secret passages that are there." He scratched his head in thought "I think we should start with the towers and work our way down. It'll give us time to get the castle fully sorted out before we venture onto the grounds and look for passages out of school."

James revised his opinion on this new idea and declared that the towers should be investigated first. He ended up writing out all of the towers on another scrap of parchment and ripping them up to put in a used every flavoured beans box.

"Pick a tower and that's where you'll start tomorrow. By the end of the month I want all of these places picked clean of their secrets," He ordered and drew the first one out. Remus followed and got the Defence Against the Dark Arts tower. When the other two had picked theirs James set aside the box for later and declared there was to be no swapsies.

"But I've got Dumbledore. Come on James it's impossible to break into," Peter whined.

Sirius scowled "Speak for yourself. I have to break into Ravenclaw." He peered over Remus' scrap.

He held it up for him "Defence," he smirked but inside wasn't so pleasant. The defence teacher didn't like Remus at all. Dumbledore told him that he didn't know about Remus' condition since he was only a temporary teacher but even still Remus knew he had his suspicions. It wasn't going to be easy to sneak around up there.

"Hah to all of you," James gloated "I got the hospital wing. I figure a good broken wrist will get me in for the night and after that the cloak will do all the work."

Peter gasped in shock "You'd break your wrist on purpose just to get into the Hospital Wing?" Even to Remus that sounded a bit far.

James just shrugged it off "I'll just put myself in a situation that would end up with a broken wrist. It's no big deal Pete."

Sirius made a coo-coo motion with his wrist to the side that made Remus smile. "Speaking of common rooms," Sirius chimed "Did you get into Hufflepuff?"

"Not exactly," He said vaguely and waited until their curiosities got the better of them. It didn't take long. Soothing them he answered with "I saw a girl go into the common room. It's a small door behind those barrels next to the kitchens. All you do is tap a specific one five times and it lets you in."

"What happens if you tap the wrong barrel?" Peter asked.

Remus shrugged "Dunno but I guess you don't get in," He answered obviously.

James was ecstatic that Remus had got another common room off their list whilst Peter made more complaints amongst James' compliments that Remus should get the job of breaking into Dumbledore's office since he had gotten them into most things so far.

"Hey I found those dungeons," Sirius snapped. Remus nodded at him to placate him before catching up to James telling Peter off for trying to switch out on them.

"No one else is swapping so man up Pete," He sighed "Honestly you were placed in Gryffindor so find some of that courage and just do it. You don't see those two wanting to swap." He pointed at Remus and Sirius.

"That's because they would if they asked you. It's just because I want to swap that things are becoming a problem!" Peter argued. Remus had never seen the boy stand up for himself. It was both uplifting to see because it was about time and annoying at the same time. James wouldn't have allowed Sirius and Remus to switch. Nor would he have switched with one of them if he didn't like his choice. James wasn't that kind of person to back out of something he had chosen himself to do.

The argument was going to take a while since once Peter was on a role it seemed he was finding it hard to stop. Remus edged away from the bed and fetched his pyjamas. He figured since he wasn't required for the rest of this conversation he was going to try and get some sleep. This week hadn't been kind to him either.

Sirius was still nice about it all. He woke up in the mornings and saw that Sirius had opened the curtains if they were in Remus' bed so the sunlight would be on him. He knew Sirius hated sleeping with any kind of light in his face so it was nice that he was doing little things like that. Then there was the fact that he never mentioned them. Remus didn't want to talk about them and Sirius knew this. He respected that Remus wanted to keep his dreams to himself just as Remus had before Christmas.

But still it didn't help him get any sleep. He had actually slept though one of his active lessons and ended up getting house points taken off him. It had been embarrassing and made worse from the ink that had coincidently spilt on his face. He knew that Dolohov was behind it when he heard the moron put his wand away and high five Carrow. They had earned themselves another prank from him which Remus was more than happy to carry out now that he had access to two other common rooms.

He tossed Romulus to the other half of the bed and climbed in whilst rolling his eyes at the heightened tone Peter's voice had taken. He wondered what it would take for Peter to stand up for himself outside of their circle of friends as Sirius climbed in next to him. The wolf was moved to his usual spot on Sirius' chest as they both tried to tune out another argument in the dorm. It was only their first year and already that had fought worse than Dumbledore and Grindelwald. His parents had warned that when you were put in a room with strangers or friends sooner or later arguments were bound to break out. But he didn't think it would happen quite as often.

Still it was better to hear shouting voices than the hissing whispers of his parents as they fought silently at the farm. He wondered how Sirius' parents fought but then amended his ideas since he had seen how they took their rage out. Remus sighed as James' broom was brought into the fray. Peter hadn't even been a part of that incident but then his lack of support before they went exploring was bound to cause some tension.

"So have you done your charms homework?" He muttered watching Sirius' mouth quirk at the obvious attempt to ignore the two outside the curtains.

"Nope," He popped "I figure I'll just do it on Sunday. I have that boils hex I need to learn for Professor Lupin on Sunday morning to focus on," he grinned.

"He sounds awful," Remus joined "Giving you homework on a Sunday. For shame."

Sirius exaggerated a sigh "Tell me about it. And even when I do learn it I've got more to learn after that."

Remus thought and snapped his fingers "You should do something about him. Maybe break into his office and steal something of his. Like his wolf," He ribbed.

Sirius held the wolf away from him as Remus made a grab for it. The past week the boy had taken a shine to it. It had made Remus wonder if Sirius had ever had something like a cuddly toy growing up.

"No," Sirius gasped as he almost fell out the bed "He likes me better and you know it," he laughed and Remus relented moving back to his side of the bed. Sirius pouted for a couple of minutes before settling down again. "He's not all bad anyway. I've learned loads more than I do in classes and I'm pretty sure I could probably beat third year in a duel," he bragged.

"Well I guess that's something," Remus agreed proud to hear praise for his work.

They lay in silence for a while. Checking on the raised voices that were still going. Remus pulled his side of the curtain shut after ten more minutes of this and eclipsed both of them in darkness.

"Hey Rem," He hummed "When I think I might have a bad dream I try and think of something good that happened. Something that gets my mind off whatever it is I'm worried about."

"Like a patronus?" he had read about that spell a lot in his Defence books. He couldn't wait until fifth year when he could cast his own.

"Yeah like a patronus. So if you like you can think of something good that's happened recently and use it to shield all the bad stuff away. Like," He paused trying to remember something he thought Remus would like "when the elves made you that massive chocolate cake last week."

"The one Peter and James ate on Monday," Truly a devastating loss and worth the five cannons he had wake James up on Tuesday. And the ice hex that made them fall over every smooth surface until Wednesday.

"Fine not that then," Sirius huffed.

"Thanks," He said stopping Sirius from becoming mad with him "I'll try and think of something."

He thought back to his parents back home. They had good memories together like the time his dad had taught him to ride a horse when he was five. But that was before he had taken ill. Every memory he had with them good or bad was always tainted now with his illness. His memories with them like the scars he had on his body. It looked whole but they were still there and always would be.

The only other people were the ones at Hogwarts and there was so many happy memories to choose from despite all the worry they were causing him. Remus found the perfect memory just as he was drifting off to sleep. It was the first day of the school year when the seventh year had left him in that hallway. Sirius had come and helped him and even though they hadn't been friends then it filled him with happiness the hope and anticipation that the memory brought. It was the start of his life with his friends and made him believe that even if he would get stuck in another hallway there would be three boys looking for him to make sure he was alright. Including the arguments Remus was happy that Sirius was the one to find him that day.

Saturday had them staking out the Hufflepuff common room. Despite them investigating towers that night the three boys wanted to see for themselves the entrance to the common room. Remus made Sirius take his charms homework with him and helped him as they waited in the room opposite the kitchens for someone to try and enter the badger's burrow.

Sirius had written two lengths of parchment when the Slytherin boy from last night came strutting down the hallway. He paused at the barrel and the four of them watched eagerly as he tapped the barrel Remus had noted down. Five times he rapped quickly on the barrel. But instead of them parting to let him through they sprayed him with a torrent of vinegar.

Remus clasped his hand around James' mouth to stop him giggling to loudly and made sure Peter and Sirius were holding their amusement in. The Slytherin on the other hand didn't find it so funny. He cursed under his breath before stalking back up the corridor.

"I don't understand," Remus said with a frown "He tapped it five times why didn't it work?"

James pried Remus' hand away to fall into louder laughter "Maybe it was the wrong barrel," Peter suggested offering to get a closer look.

"No," Remus shook his head looking back at them. He had tapped the second one down which was the same as the one the girl had "It's the same and so was the number of taps with his wand. Something else is going on," He mused and went back to getting Sirius to concentrate on his work.

Footsteps sounded soon after James had calmed down and they all watched as the boy came back with his Hufflepuff girlfriend in tow. They were arguing about a meeting place or a surprise, Remus wasn't really following, and the girl was showing him specifically what to do with the barrels. The boy pointed out when the barrels moved that the sequence was precisely what he had done.

"Oh so you tapped it to the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff," She snapped and stalked into the common room as her boyfriend trailed behind.

"So that's what it was," Remus sighed noticing the difference between the girls taps and the boys.

"Huh?" Peter squeaked asking for an explanation.

"It's five raps but in the rhythm for Helga Hufflepuff. There's five syllables in her name but the boy rapped them too quickly on the barrels. There should have been a pause after the second one and the third and fifth one should have been drawn out in comparison to the sharp rap of the fourth."

"But they're Hufflepuff," James muttered "How come they have a cooler security system than we do. All we have is a painting that sleeps most of the time. What good is she if there's an intruder. If they know the layout all they have to do is find her and say the password. But this," He gestured "This is brilliant!"

James wasn't the only one marvelling at the difference in common room security. It seemed that Godric Gryffindor for all his talk of bravery didn't think he needed more than a simple password for his common room unlike the others. Even the Slytherin common room had two of them to let you out and back in! Remus shuddered to think what Ravenclaws would be like if this was Hufflepuffs. They were known for their brains and he dreaded to think what would happen if someone got the password wrong. It seemed Sirius shared his opinion since he had grown considerably quiet at the revelation of the password.

"You'll be fine," Remus promised and made him focus on his conclusion.

The defence tower was as dark as dark magic. The windows were few and far between which meant that candles and wands were usually used to light the way. This was in daylight, Remus on the other hand was visiting at night which meant that all the candles were out and lighting his wand was a sure way he would be spotted.

The darkness was easier to see in once his eyes had adjusted but it was still difficult navigating himself along the corridors. Twice now he had bumped into a suit of armour or ornament of the castle. He rubbed his sore head and turned towards where he thought the wall was. If he could feel his way along it would mean he didn't run into as many things. That was the theory anyway. The reality of it was that there was more things leaning against the wall than there was stranded in the middle of the corridor. He landed flat on his face after tripping over a fold in the rug and promptly woke several portraits with his attempt to get up again.

The defence classroom itself was only slightly brighter than its corridors but Remus would have to be even more careful in here. Despite there being windows to light the desks and chairs a small scrape of a pencil skittering across the floor would wake the sleeping teacher in the rooms above the classroom.

Naturally creatures of every species were labelled or even kept in cages around the foreboding classroom and Remus shuddered at a graphically detailed drawing of a man in mid transformation. He wondered vaguely if he looked like before snapping out of his daze and retreating to the farthest corner of the room behind the professors desk.

He checked for wards which was something he had become quite good at after his trips to the restricted section. Sitting down at the professors desk quietly Remus took out his parchment and noted everything he could see in the classroom. He plotted out the shape of the room and after a wave of his wand jotted down the measurements of the room also. Once every detail of the classroom had been done he knew he couldn't put off his trip to the professors private quarters and gently removed himself from the desk.

He thought of James who was having it easy in the Hospital Wing. He had decided to wait to break his wrist for the next week or the week after and use the cloak this week to sneak around Pomphrey's tower. He wished that he had a cloak like that right now before thinking of poor Peter. He had it much worse than him since he had to contend with the might of Dumbledore. It wouldn't be easy breaking into there. Nor would Ravenclaw be simple.

He counted each step on his way up and noted it down before checking for wards on the door to the defence teachers office. There was one alarm spell that was easily deflected and another one that Remus could vaguely detect waiting for any intruders further in. It seemed odd that he should pick that up so Remus tried a different spell and noticed three other hidden wards that the faint trace of the other one was masking.

Two of them were difficult to crack and Remus was sure they were going to trigger some kind of alarm as he swished his wand the way Sirius had taught him. But when none came and the last of the three wards were gone along with the masking one he pushed the door open with little resistance.

The gap he left was just big enough for him to sneak through as he crawled over to the large bookcase nearest the door. Lifting himself up he peered timidly at the desk that was streaming with unmarked defence essays. He cast his wand around in a detection circle every time he took more than three steps further into the room until he was at the professors window. Using the light from the half cast moon he noted the measurements again before aiming his wand at the door leading off from the defence office.

There was more wards on this door and would take more than one night to crack. For now Remus just worked on the ones that wouldn't be noticed and left the larger ones hoping they would do what the other spell the teacher had cast on his office door had. But this time mask the spells that were missing.

With that done Remus backed away out of the defence office and recast some of the wards he recognised in his disarmament before he skipped down the stairs and into the dark corridor beyond. The other rooms in the tower needed to be explored so Remus felt his way along the wall until he found the stairs again and journeyed to the next floor of the tower.

By the end of the night he had mapped out four rooms and gleefully gave them to James for him to copy up onto their map of the highest towers. Sirius had managed to break into Ravenclaw hence the smug look on his face as he entered the dorm with his head held high. He told them it was Remus' dream home full of books and smart people. Remus just rolled his eyes and congratulated him on his success.

James had gathered a lot of information about the hospital wing. Like Remus he had mapped out a few of the other rooms in the tower instead of just the part they knew about. Apparently there was a whole floor dedicated to potions and bandages packed in shelves and another with a bathroom that looked like it had a swimming pool in. Remus didn't know whether James was exaggerating that part but he didn't rule it out as a possibility. Perhaps next time he was up there he would see for himself this swimming pool.

Peter was the last one back and looked miserable as he relayed the news that he couldn't get into the headmaster's tower. He said that there was a stone gargoyle blocking the way and he had spent the better part of the night guessing passwords and hoping no one found him.

James offered to help him think of some more during the week which earned him a glare from the sullen boy. Needless to say Peter went to bed early that night whilst the others stayed up watching James draw the map.

"Do you think Filch is still camped down in the dungeons?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"I never really thought about it," James mused and neither had Remus. For the better part of the term they had spent it gallivanting around the dungeons. But now they had moved onto the towers. The caretaker wasn't to know this and Remus guessed that Sirius' thoughts were right.

"So long as he stays down there a couple of weeks more," he said thinking how unnerving it was in the defence tower earlier. Add a caretaker out for blood into the mix and he was sure to never sleep again.

"Maybe next week one of us should go down with the cloak and taunt him a little. Just to keep him from investigating the rest of the castle for a while," James suggested.

Remus nodded his agreement and made sure that James "Make it Peter," nodding towards the closed curtains. "I think that maybe we should give him something else to do after that anyway. Dumbledore looks like a job for all of us."

James sighed but agreed with him whilst Sirius didn't look like he cared much what Peter did.

So that Friday Peter was down in the dungeons whilst Sirius took up the Divination tower. Remus continued with his exploration of the other rooms before journeying back down into the defence classroom. Every night that week he had been coming into the class to make sure that the wards surrounding the professors quarters were still down and checking which ones he needed to look up.

Now he was confident that he could get in and back out undetected Remus decided it was time to break in. The wards came down easily after his practice with Sirius' charms and soon Remus was faced with a lavishly dark room. He measured the small living area and carefully tip toed over towards the bedroom. There were curious objects lying around but Remus knew better than to touch any of them.

He was in a Defence Against the Dark Arts Professors classroom after all, and if there was one thing they knew how to do it was defend. The door to the professors sleeping area was unwarded meaning that he thought the first two would be enough to catch the moronic person breaking in. Remus made sure that if he ever got a teaching job he would make his wards airtight and placed more carefully. It was easy to break into the professors quarters once he knew how.

The man was snoring as Remus opened the door and waved his wand around. He noted everything he needed before returning the closed door to its previous state and retreating from that wing of the castle.

He was hyped when he got back to Gryffindor. The adrenalin still pumping through him that would only get worse in the next two days. No one was back yet so Remus allowed himself to whoop and cheer all he liked in his dorm.

Changing he waited impatiently for the others to come back from their excursions and went pacing around the room. He was on his fourth lap when something caught his eye. It didn't blink out at him but was odd in that it was a book lying under Peter's bed. The boy would never read anything that wasn't forced onto him so it was odd to see an unfamiliar cover peeking out from Peter's side of the room.

He knew he shouldn't pry but it was nagging at his brain wondering what could have caught his friends eye in the literature world. He didn't need to read the title to know that he wouldn't like it though. Two steps towards it and the light had caught the picture that adorned the front of the book. A man, much like the one in the defence room, was in mid change on the front. His body was hunched and his features distorted in a monstrous look that even frightened Remus.

His back hit the post of his bed and he crumpled to the floor. Why did Peter have something like that?

His hearing went fuzzy and his eyes blackened out. When they cleared it was to two brown ones looking back at him. James was mouthing something but was quickly pushed to the side by Sirius barging into his line of sight.

"Rem can you hear me?" He nodded jerkily not noticing his hands were clenched in his hair until he tried to move. They wouldn't unclench and it was becoming quite painful for him to keep them clawed up like that. "Thank Merlin," Sirius breathed "Is everything alright?"

Remus couldn't answer. How could he with that book in the same room as him. But then he would have to. After all surely if they knew they would have confronted him about it. He tried to take deep breaths and calm himself. They couldn't know, he reasoned which seemed to help a little. Sirius sensed the change and relaxed himself as James peered at Remus tentatively.

"Why don't you have a lie down," James suggested already reaching for him. His hands seized up again when James got close and the boy was quickly pushed back to the side as Sirius tried to calm him down again.

"Rem you're tired. Come on, let's go to bed," Sirius murmured slowly moving closer to him. He wanted to tell him that he wasn't a skittish animal but the incident with James proved that he probably did need some caution right now. "Come on," Sirius repeated slowly untangling his hands from his head "Your mum won't like it if you turn up on Monday all tired out," he grinned but Remus felt tears pooling as the lie he had told them unravelled before his eyes. "Oh Merlin," Sirius grunted spotting the tracks that were making their way from his eyes.

"Move Sirius," James pushed and Remus was enveloped in a hug. "Is it your mum?" James muttered "Is it bad news? You don't have to tell us, just come on and get into bed okay. Everything's going to be alright."

It was a collective effort to get him into bed. James volunteered to stay with him that night since Sirius was apparently hopeless at consoling someone who was crying. The boy objected and soon all three of them were camped out awkwardly on Remus' bed. It was a tight squeeze and Remus was glad when Peter had opted out of trying to make him feel better. He knew that he was going to have to get himself together. They couldn't suspect anything.

Saturday was bad. Remus was shaking all over when he woke and no amount of blankets or forced cups of hot liquids would stop it. He had never been like this before and was at a loss to how he could remedy it. All three of them had opted out of map duty that night in favour of looking after Remus. Despite his protests otherwise they said that they needed to copy up last nights map rooms and practice some of the spells he had found that week. Sirius sang his praise for Remus when he saw the rooms marked 'defence quarters' but even that couldn't help him.

Sunday was worse. As soon as he woke he had a fever and was sick over the side of his bed. James screamed for a teacher whilst Peter fetched water from the toilets. Sirius was trying to get him to stand up when McGonagall came bursting through the door. She obviously hadn't believed James when he had woken her from her lie in but did as soon as Remus' legs collapsed under him in another vomiting attack.

Pomphrey couldn't do anything. She told him it was to do with the full moon and asked privately if anything like this had happened before. He told her no in-between bouts of retching and asked where the other three had gone.

James had retreated back to the dorm with the other two to get his things. They spent all day nagging at Pomphrey asking her why she wasn't doing anything when Remus spat up blood. Peter tried to engage him in a game but after the blood made its appearance retreated to the dorm. Sirius tried to keep him hydrated all day and practically forced it down his throat when he retched up more blood.

By the time Pomphrey shooed them out and took him to the shack he thought he was going to die. His bones ached so much that to move caused agony beyond anything after a full moon. His throat was sore and his stomach wasn't worth mentioning about.

He was surprised to wake up on Wednesday. It was noon from the look of the sun in the room and also from the fact his friends were eating around his bed. He wondered why he wasn't sectioned off for a minute before realising there was no need. They knew he was ill this month and therefore there was no need to hide him from the rest of the students.

He could feel his bandages pulling on his chest and upper arms but thankfully nothing seemed to be missing or gouged below his sleeves. His face felt full and so did his neck so he hoped there was nothing there either.

Tossing his head to the side to dislodge a loose bit of hair he watched the others gazing worriedly at him. They needn't have since he felt much better than he had before the full moon.

Offering a timid smile he asked them if "You have any chocolate?"

Sirius grinned and tossed him a little cupcake that the house elves had made. He caught it with a little pain but the promise of chocolate overrode anything his body was sending him at the minute.

"How are you feeling?" Peter asked looking slightly nauseous.

"I'm not going to be sick," He reassured making Peter relax and James frown more intently. "I'm fine, really," He insisted.

"We thought you were going to die," James stated. "You were coughing up- and Pomphrey-" He had started to choke up. If Remus could have moved his bottom half safely he would have reached across but instead he let Peter pat him on the shoulder.

"I'm fine," he said.

Pomphrey let him leave the hospital wing with only one foul potion to take before bed. The others helped carry him and his stuff back up to the dorm and Remus was pleased to note the house elves had been cleaning.

Even so he insisted that they sleep in Sirius' bed that night to which the boy grinningly agreed. Three more chocolate covered sweets later and he was climbing under the covers, safe for another month.

He was drifting when he heard James hiss to Peter "Get rid of it. I don't care what you think if that happens again I swear-"

"James," Sirius intervened "Leave it. Peter get rid of it," he ordered and the next thing Remus knew the curtains were being pulled back and Sirius was climbing over him. Romulus was placed on the pillow between them as Sirius made himself comfortable.

"Sirius," The boy looked up "I'm sorry abou-" He was crushed in a hug that left his bandaged ribs aching again "What?"

"I thought you were dead," Something wet fell on Remus' neck and he realised Sirius was crying "You were gone and I thought... But Pomphrey said you'd just went to Mungos or home I wasn't really listening," He sobbed.

"I'm sorry," he didn't know what else to say.

"Just don't do that again," he couldn't promise Sirius that so he didn't say anything. Instead he let him curl himself tighter into Remus and finally drift off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Remus had that urge to kill his friends again. He had thought it was bad when they wouldn't leave him alone at the beginning of the year but now it was bordering on ridiculous. Showers, toilet trips and even walks around the castle were to be supervised. If Remus so much as looked like he would trip someone would get hexed and he was on one of their backs as they carried him away.

It made going to the library difficult for him which was tedious since he needed to look up why he might have reacted so badly to the moon. Never before had stress or something upsetting caused such a violent reaction but it had. He didn't know why and it looked like he might never if his friends didn't relent in their stalking soon.

"I'm pretty sure my back's clean James," He said for the fifth time as the sponge washed over his scars again.

"No one's ever too clean," Came the usual reply before Remus was herded under the shower head. He had argued fervently with the boy when James had hopped in the morning after he returned to the dorms but James wouldn't leave. He hadn't mentioned the bruises or cuts that were newly carved into his skin which put Remus on edge.

"Well I think I am," He tried to get out the shower alone only to find a towel waiting and Sirius grinning at him. Growling in frustration he yanked the towel out of Sirius' grasp and stalked into the dorm. He apologised to Peter later for locking him in the bathroom with the other two for three hours but when he saw the boy waiting with his arms adorning Remus' school robes he just lost it.

He used the hours after locking them in the bathroom to visit the library in between lessons and take out some books. The covers were blank and leather bound unlike the one Peter had and only the title gave away their less than normal subject. He stole them in between his potions and transfiguration books by using a handy little spell he had learned to shrink his class books around the new ones. Pince wouldn't suspect that Remus was carrying more than when he came in.

McGonagall was looking for James and Sirius in her lessons. Despite their tendency to mess around in lessons they were both attentive during hers. They excelled any and all spells she set before them with an exaggerated flourish that made them quick favourites of their head of house. She was no doubt suspicious when Remus came in alone and when Peter didn't turn up either.

"I think they went to the grounds," Remus lied on his way out and used his lunch to undo the wards and locks on the bathroom.

James was frantic and checked him over whilst Sirius took his bag and dragged him and a fussing James to their potions lesson. Peter trailed behind and forgave Remus when he asked for it, especially when he offered his transfiguration notes.

Finding time to read the books he stole proved to be hard with his friends hanging around. After his stunt that morning they had grown wiser to where they stood in relation to his wand. Fanning out proved to be their advantage since Remus couldn't take them all at once in different positions.

James was showing him the improvements he had made to the towers on the maps whilst Sirius and Peter copied up the notes they had missed. All the while Remus' attention was on the books lying innocently in his bag. He wondered if it was some kind of disease or if he had went through a growth spurt and his body was just getting the whiplash of the upcoming events. But then wouldn't he have ended up worse than he was? It seemed that the moon was a tame one with only a couple new scratches and bruises around his upper chest. Usually those happened every moon since Remus' hands changed to claws as he was clutching his rapidly changing bone structure. It seemed as if he had simply slept through the rest of the moon.

"Your notes on the defence tower were really helpful," He tuned in "But I think that you're going to have to stay on it for a while longer. It seems to me that the place is too big not to have a secret passage or room within it."

"Probably," Remus agreed "There's also the fact that the defence classroom itself has more than one door in it. I was too focused on getting in the professors quarters to really investigate the room. I'll do it this weekend," He promised.

There was no time for him to sneak out of the dorm that evening and none that night either. One or the other of his friends demanded his attention so he didn't have any time for himself. The only chance Remus really got was when they were all going to bed.

He waited for the snores of his room mates to commence before checking Sirius wouldn't wake next to him. Romulus was cuddled securely in his arms and he was facing away from Remus but the slow motion of his chest showed that he too was asleep.

He slipped out of the quilt and carefully picked up his bag before retreating to the bathroom. Lighting up his wand he pulled the first book out and skimmed the pages to see if he could find what was wrong with him.

There was nothing concretely true in this book was what Remus concluded after two hundred pages. The information was bigoted and favoured the ideals one would associate with prejudiced idiots. It spoke for three chapters on the symptoms of his illness and how to spot them. He looked at his hand jokingly and noted the lack of excessive hair. Then he felt sorry for those who did suffer from that affliction, no doubt they were being pertained by the ministry.

In none of those pages there was a hint to what Remus had experienced. He picked up the next one and went straight for the contents before checking on chapter four about full moons. Much like the last one it listed symptoms and the dangers of being near one such as himself but again it didn't answer any of the questions he had. The last one didn't either.

He wondered absently if the book Peter had would hold any answers. Shoving the ones he had stolen back in his bag he concluded it was worth a read. He opened the bathroom door and quietly stowed his bag in his trunk before crouching near the closed curtains of Peter's bed.

Making sure there was still two sets of snores in the room and glancing back at his own closed curtains Remus tentatively lifted the red drape up and lit the end of his wand. Peter's side of the room had always been a mess and it seemed that Remus had found the root. Half eaten sweets and wrappers lay piled and dusted, oozing out whatever they had once held onto the floor beneath it. Socks that Peter had accused them of stealing were trapped helplessly in the thick goo of what he assumed was melted toffee.

Turning his wand this way and that Remus couldn't find any sight of the book that he was sure lay under Peter's bed. He let the curtain fall as his gaze narrowed onto the bed next to his own. James might have taken it. The book probably wasn't Peter's in the first place. James had a tendency to lounge on any surface available to him and often left stuff on other peoples side of the room.

But the same was said for James' bed when Remus couldn't find the book. Nothing but Quidditch magazines and some pieces of the broken broom lay under James' bed. He checked under Sirius' as a final resort before concluding that the book had gone. It looked like he was going to have to ask Pomphrey about it after all.

He ran his hands through his hair both disappointed that the book was gone but relieved that they hadn't thought to keep it around for reference. It showed that their suspicions were gone or at least delayed in their investigations.

He climbed back into bed with the promise of going to the hospital wing after classes and caught up on his much needed sleep. He vaguely felt Sirius slipping out of the covers as he drifted off but ignored it in favour of the sweet oblivion his new subconscious had given him.

It turned out easy to convince his friends that he should take a trip to the hospital wing that day. It was a Saturday and since James was still fretting from Wednesday he knew that an okay from Pomphrey would also allow James to let him out tonight.

She welcomed them with cursory glares since the last time they were in they shouted none stop at her. But Remus just asked if he could have a word about something to which she pulled him into her office. It was then, out of the ears of his peers, that he asked her about what she thought happened. Her answer left him with more questions than answers.

"Poisoning?"

"You've seen how you react to touching silver. Consuming it would render you most likely dead if the full moon hadn't been coming up," she admonished and asked him why he was trying to kill himself.

"But I haven't been. I would never..." He thought back to what he had eaten that day. They had something in the great hall for tea and went back to the dorm they could prepare for their trips to the towers. Peter had given him a sugar quill since he had eaten all of Remus' again. But if he had eaten all of Remus' how did he have that one? "So how come I didn't die?" he muttered thinking about all the ways he could have ingested silver. It could have been the result of something being in close proximity to silver. But he didn't eat with any silver materials.

"Your body changes every full moon to become a wolf. It prepares a couple of days beforehand which is why you get bursts of energy or aches in your bones. My guess is that the silver you ingested wasn't able to properly poison your system because your body was in mid change already. It rejected the dead blood much like it would do when you change on a full moon," She explained and shooed him out after that since Sirius had gotten panicky and was rapping on the door.

"Thank you," he called as she made her way back to her patients.

He turned to the others who were watching Pomphrey leave also "So you're not going to die?" James asked.

"No," he replied and told them that they could leave now.

Back at the dorm they took up their parchments and left to pursue their part of the castle. Except where James should have been sectioning off to the hospital wing he was trailing alongside Remus with the cloak tucked under his arm.

"Nice night for it," James remarked taking the steps up to the defence tower. Remus sighed as he realised they weren't actually going to leave him alone for a while.

"True," he spat and followed after the skipping boy.

They soon came to the dark tower and twice Remus had to pull James up from his trip to the floor. They had woke some portraits up but managed to subdue them before they started calling for help.

James looked like he didn't care whether they woke the professor up. He strolled in without looking checking whether anyone was in or even whether it was warded and then cluttered about with the desks that were in his way. Remus felt himself shrinking into the shadows with every bang that sounded into the quiet night and edged his way towards the back of the class. He proceeded to check every door he found and run his hands along the wall to see if he could find anything hidden. James on the other hand had made his way up the stairs and was eyeing the defence office. Remus hastily picked up a waylaid pencil and threw it at his head. He motioned for James to come down and refused to apologise for hitting him despite what James demanded.

The two of them by the end of the night had managed to scour the whole of the defence tower. James had noticed two hidden doorways that led to the transfiguration corridor and the other to the library. By the time they were making their way back Remus' mood had lightened considerably.

They needn't have feared Filch since the caretaker was still adamant that there was someone skulking around the dungeons and with Peter making his weekly havoc down there it wasn't about to change any time soon. So James and Remus enjoyed their slow walk back to the Gryffindor tower.

James helped him on the steps and wouldn't hear it when Remus complained that he could do it himself. When they got back to the dorm Sirius was changed and lounging on his bed scouring the notes he had taken of the Owlry. He passed them to James before taking over Remus watching and followed him into the bathroom.

"Find anything interesting?" Sirius asked handing Remus his shirt.

"Some passages and a room full of live rats," He laughed at the cringe Sirius made "It was quite cool. What about you?"

Sirius huffed "Nothing interesting at the Owlry apart from the owls. I had the place done in under half an hour so I spent an hour noting which owls belonged to which student."

"Why?"

"Why not?" Sirius smirked "If we know who's owls who's then there's the endless possibility for pranks. Just think if we can get the owl on our side then they could send packages laden with dungbombs or poisoned cookies that make you sprout boils." Sirius laughed but Remus didn't. Something about what he just said made him think of what happened at the full moon.

"Poisoned cookies," Remus mumbled to himself walking out of the bathroom and bidding goodnight to James. Just then something caught his eye on the bottom of Sirius' bed. He rolled his eyes at Sirius' cloak strewn across the quilt. The boy hardly ever picked up after himself since he was used to others doing it for him. Remus caught the fabric, careful to avoid the lion clasp that Sirius had taken to wearing religiously for him and moved it to the floor. But not before he noticed the chip in the lions mane. "I didn't know silver could erode," He mentioned and motioned to the cloak when Sirius' face went blank.

Understanding dawned on him and he caught the cloak from Remus and flung it into his trunk whilst looking around for something "It doesn't. I caught Peter eyeing it and the next thing I know my cloak turns up like that. Honestly I've had to start locking my things up," he complained "You'd think Peter would know not to touch others things."

"Yes, you would," he said absently and got into bed.

There wasn't much missing from the lions mane and it didn't look like it had been hacked off either. The place where it was missing was smooth and flat. Almost like someone had filed it off. Remus frowned at his thoughts and pulled the pillow from Sirius' side. Could Peter have tried to poison Remus? But why? There was always the werewolf book that he had found but then again Peter had known that Remus was allergic to silver so why would he try and put silver into his system. That's even if it was him. But he did have an opportunity. After all Remus accepted a sugar quill from him earlier that evening before he went out.

"You'll get a headache," Sirius muttered peeling one eye open. Remus lifted his eyebrow in response "Thinking to hard," He poked Remus' forehead "Now stop and sleep. You need it."

Remus kept an eye on Peter for the next couple of weeks. No longer would he accept anything that the boy had to offer him and even gave his sweets away when he realised that they boy had been in them the day before. James had been noticing Remus' changes and remarked on it three times over the next couple of weeks.

"Are you sure you're alright? You're not acting like yourself," he would say but Remus would just remark that he was still in shock about how bad he had been.

He knew he couldn't use that excuse forever though and quickly changed it to concerns about his mum when the coming moon approached. James seemed to accept his mum excuse more than his shock over his near death experience and left the matter alone. But Remus didn't leave Peter alone. He dogged him much like he was doing to Remus which made the other two happy that Remus was supervised but to Peter he seemed to notice that Remus' new approach at bonding had something sinister underneath it.

Good, Remus thought, see how he likes it. A development came on night in the dormitory. It was a Saturday and he had just came back from investigating the astronomy tower when he spotted Sirius' clasp seated on his bed. Another part of the lions mane had been chipped off and as far as Remus could see it was nowhere to be found. He couldn't sit on the bed and was wary of touching anything in case it held traces of silver and so was stuck standing in the middle of the room for the others to come back.

He didn't have to wait long since the water was running in the bathroom. Ten minutes later Peter was washed and emerging from the shower with a cheery grin on his face. When he saw Remus in the room though his grin vanished into a wary frown as he regarded the scowl placed on Remus' features.

"Everything alright?" He asked innocently making Remus' blood boil.

He decided to play it cool "Someone's been rifling through Sirius' things again," he nodded towards his bed "I can't touch it since I get blisters. Don't suppose you could move it?"

"Sure," Peter nodded moving over and taking the clasp off the bed. He was turning it over in his hands before regarding Remus again "It seems an odd allergy to have though. Silver, I mean I've heard of people being allergic to metal but I don't think I've seen them react so suddenly to them," He moved around Remus and put the clasp on Sirius' trunk.

"What do you mean react so suddenly? I saw a Hufflepuff eat a peanut once and they swelled up in under a minute," He still refused to move. Who knows what was waiting on his things.

"Well yeah," Peter relented "But they just swelled up. You have blisters when it comes near you and it practically breaks skin when you do touch it. It just seems weird, you know?"

"Not really," He glared which Peter held with just as much ferocity. The boy definitely knew something, he would have to rectify it.

"Remus!" Sirius screeched as he bounded into the room. His arms immediately embraced him in his glee "Guess what? You'll never guess, it's just amazing!" he grinned.

"What is it then?" He abandoned Peter's stare in favour of the delight of his friend.

"James got caught!" Sirius announced practically vibrating with happiness.

"That doesn't good," Peter mumbled just as Remus caught on to what Sirius was saying.

"Really?" Sirius abandoned his scowl to Peter to grin back at Remus. He nodded vigorously. "This is great!" Remus crowed.

"Will someone fill me in," Peter called.

Sirius sighed but relented "James got caught by Filch who refused to send him to McGonagall since he believes that James is the one who's been sneaking around the dungeons for the past couple of months. Which he has," Sirius admitted "But he couldn't just bring him to McGonagall for that. The time he's been out of bounds has long since surpassed McGonagalls influence. No, this goes straight to Dumbledore!"

Peter finally realised that James was inside the headmaster's office right now and joined in the merriment. "Just think," Remus told them "He'll know the password for the study. We'll have to be quick to get in there again before the password changes," He was already making plans in his head. They were going to have to use the cloak obviously but how many of them were going to go?

"Is everything alright in here?" Sirius asked looking at the both of them. He seemed to finally realise he had walked in on something.

"Someone's been through your things again," He told him before he went back to plotting. He would have preferred sitting down to do so but Peter had complicated that.

"What!" Remus heard Sirius rifle through his things before noticing the further damaged lion clasp on the floor where it had landed in his assault. "Peter! How many times do I have to tell you to stop going through my things," He yelled.

"Why do you assume it's me," Peter argued back.

"Well James obviously hasn't been in it," He stated "Besides you're the one with the..." Remus glanced around as Sirius trailed off. He noticed Remus staring and shot him an odd frown before turning to his trunk "Just stay out of my things."

Remus went down to the common room since it was the only reasonably safe place for him. It was an hour and a half later when James strolled through the common room with a look to rival Sirius'.

"It went well then?" Remus called from his armchair.

James turned and noticed him. Beaming he strolled and sat on the arm "Sirius told you then?"

"Oh yes," Remus smirked "So how soon do you think we should make our move?"

James seemed to think about it like he hadn't just spent the last hour plotting their break in "Sometime early tomorrow morning. Or, well today then," he looked at the time. "Definitely enough time for Dumbledore to have went to bed."

Remus nodded "Who are you taking?" At James' confused look Remus explained that "We can't all fit under your cloak. One of us is going to have to sit it out."

"Which is going to be Peter," Sirius announced sitting on the other side of the armchair. Remus hadn't heard him come down.

"How come?"

"I caught him snooping through my things again. Not to mention he gets too shaky on covert missions. Remember the hype he pulled about Dumbledore the first time around?"

"All the more reason to take him," Remus suggested "He'll want to see what he couldn't break into the first time."

"Fine," Sirius relented with a sigh and slid down so he was cuddled up next to Remus. "So who's going to stay out of us three?"

"I will," He told them. He needed to check the dorm for silver that was lying around. Not to mention he wanted a snoop through Peters things. "If I want to have a look I'll just do something particularly naughty," He reasoned stretching from his position and calling the other two to get ready.

Back in the dorm he seated himself carefully onto James' trunk as the other three spoke excitedly about their impending break in. Sirius was still sending dirty looks Peters way whilst James nudged him to be friendly. Remus couldn't bring himself to reprimand Sirius tonight since he too felt like sending just as dark looks Peters way.

"Ready then?" James asked and once the affirmative had been reached they journeyed out of the dorm.

He followed them to open the portrait so as not to look suspicious before bounding back up the stairs and dragging his trunk to the window. He scourigified every inch until it was cleaner than when he bought it. Next he emptied out the contents and delicately sorted through his things for anything that might be laced. Shaking them violently out the window just in case before putting them carefully back in his clean trunk. Next was his bed and then Sirius' until his and Sirius' side was the only haven in their messy dorm.

Remus couldn't think what Peter would want with the silver from the lions mane unless he had planned to lace something with it. If he hadn't done so already then he probably still had it on him. Another reason to search Peter's side of the room.

He was careful and placed everything back where he found it yet still he found no trace of silver. There was nothing else damning in his trunk either. No books or diagrams depicting monsters but he couldn't help thinking about what he had seen. Peter knew something. Remus was sure of it!

Sighing hopelessly he dropped onto his bed and kicked his shoes off in his sorrows. Perhaps he had been imagining things last time. It had been close to the moon and often his mind wandered before hand. Not to mention the fact that he had swallowed silver. Who knows what that might have done to his body, the book could have just been a figment of his fever addled imagination. Peters hostility before was probably a product of Remus' constant presence over the last couple of weeks. He knew that they all drove him mad when they wouldn't leave him alone so it wasn't as far fetched as it sounded.

The merry conquerors returned triumphant and proud. They had journeyed to the kitchens for celebratory muffins on their way back and Sirius happily bestowed Remus with three of them. He pushed them onto his table and listened to the tales they had to tell about the headmaster's office.

Apparently there were portraits of every previous headmaster situated behind Dumbledore's desk. Sirius had been slightly disgruntled at that since his uncle or relation had been a headmaster. James told Remus about all the trinkets that Dumbledore had collected over the years. He named all the ones he knew about before talking about Dumbledore's phoenix. It had known they were there somehow but didn't know their exact location and according to James didn't much care that they were in Dumbledore's office.

James showed him all the plans they had made and eagerly fetched his quill to sketch out Dumbledore's office onto their map.

"Did you clean?" Sirius sneered looking at his bed.

"Yes," Remus mumbled into his pillow. "I'm not sleeping in filth," Was what he told Sirius before changing into his pyjamas and jumping onto Sirius' clean bed "You should be thanking me before it grows mould like James and Peters beds."

James was too preoccupied to form a retort and Peter seemed to still be angry at him to do much more than stare. It was early in the morning so Sirius didn't need too much persuasion to call it a night and collapse into bed next to him. He made sure to fetch Romulus from Remus' pillow and smack James on the head with him before he joined him.

If he hadn't needed the toilet later that morning Remus doubted he would have noticed until early afternoon. As it was he was in mid yawn and tying up his pants as he walked to the sinks. He pulled a funny face in the mirror before reaching for the tap. As soon as he did though excruciating agony made its way up his hand. He yanked it back abruptly from the tap and stared through tears at the blood welling up in his palm. There was a lot there and he could feel a silent scream issue from his lips as he held his hand close to him.

He panted and gagged to stop himself from crying as he walked into the dorm. Peter was sitting up in his bed and peering out at Remus from his curtains. He quickly closed his palm up.

"Everything alright Remus?" Peter asked with a small smile that told him he knew exactly what was wrong with him.

Remus just clenched his hand tighter on the pain not caring that he could feel blood dripping down onto the floor. Luckily his hand was facing away from Peter as he nodded "Fine," he said and was proud that his voice didn't waver as he strolled back to Sirius' bed. Pomphrey would have to wait until morning he reasoned brining his hand to his chest and tried to stop himself from making any noise.

He closed his eyes from the pain and honestly didn't know how long he lay there in agony before his hand was pulled away from his body. He saw a blurry Sirius staring in horror at his hand and he moved quickly to the bathroom. A minute later Remus was nursing his wound with a damp cloth that stung at first but became something he couldn't live without after a while.

"What happened?" Sirius hissed poking his head out and making sure the others were still asleep. Remus told him about going to the bathroom but regretted to inform Sirius that the taps were laced with silver. That was something he was going to bring up to Peter on his own. Sirius cursed when he was done and took Remus' hand from him to look at better in the light "We'll need to go to Pomphrey for it," He warned to which Remus just nodded. He knew that already. Sirius poked his head out of the curtains again, as if he knew who was behind Remus' recent injury "We'll go now," He announced and pulled Remus to his feet.

They padded along the halls until they reached the hospital wing. Pomphrey knew what kind of wound he had and lectured him away from Sirius' ears about the danger of silver. She even recommended going to see a teacher if he was having some difficulties in school. Apparently she believed that these things were self inflicted. To which Remus reported that he already self harmed once a month and didn't need more scars.

Sirius carried Remus' salve back to the dorm for him and checked his hand every once in a while, even though it was bandaged. On the way back Remus begged them to stop at one of the boys bathrooms so he could get washed. Sirius cast him a questioning look but nevertheless complied and waited whilst Remus used the sinks to scrub himself clean.

Back at the dorm James and Peter were awake and arguing quietly about something on Peters bed. When they came in Peter nodded not so secretively towards Remus' bandaged hand to which James grew red with fury. It was something Remus wasn't supposed to know since James left the room and didn't return until later and in a calmer state of mind.

Sunday was spent in a tense silence all around. Remus busied himself with homework and revising for the end of year exams that were starting in two months. They had all gotten their timetables and although he had to move one around Remus was confident that he would at least pass all of his classes.

Sirius and James weren't talking to one another but then they hadn't really been that close to begin with. They alternated between pacing the dorm and joining Remus in the common room. As for Peter he was playing with the first year girls, teaching them about wizard chess and how to play gobstones. Lily was quite taken with the violence of wizard chess and had Peter play her ten times before he called it a day. Remus took some satisfaction that she beat him in more games than he won..

As night fell the atmosphere was growing worse between the four boys. Remus knew he needed to clean the bathroom up but Peter wouldn't let him out of his sights. By eight he journeyed down to the kitchens tailed by the three boys and practically ordered a house elf off to the side to clean his bathroom. The house was more than happy to comply but Remus knew that Peter saw what he had told the elf.

The moon was on Tuesday that week which meant that the tense atmosphere continued to that point. The coming moon left him more agitated and restless on Monday and much less forgiving of every little thing Peter did to annoy him. By the time the moon came around he was glad to wake up on Thursday with no recollection of the last two days. It meant that he hadn't seen Peter and it meant that he could rest easy in the hospital wing since Pomphrey would never allow anything to hurt him here.

When he was allowed to go to the dorm a set scowl was on his features and he knew that Peter would be there waiting for him to return. He needed a plan.

"So Remus," Peter started lounging on Remus' bed "I couldn't help noticing that you weren't in your bed for the past two nights."

"I was visiting my mother. You know that Peter," Sirius and James were off in their own beds watching the impeding argument with wide eyes.

"Really? Or were you changing into a blood thirsty monster," He accused and held up the book Remus had been searching for. The crude drawing was on the front but it was nothing compared to the images within.

"You think I'm a-" He forced himself to laugh incredulously feeling nerves well up.

"You didn't really hide it all that well," Peter said ignoring the laughter aimed at him and continuing with his smug deceleration "Gone every full moon and yes I checked it's every full moon! Not to mention your aversion to silver and all the scars you have. Then there's your eyes," What was wrong with his eyes? He would have to check later.

"And all this makes you think I'm a monster?" He asked looking to James and Sirius for some support. All he saw though was suspicion. It seemed that Peter had roped them into this idea but they were letting him lead the accusations in case they were false.

"A werewolf!" Peter declared haughtily. Remus cringed at the use of the word. He hadn't called himself that and refused to even think the label that the ministry had assigned to him. He supposed it was some kind of denial but every time he so much as thought the word his limbs seized in phantom pain.

He used his discomfort to his advantage "So all this evidence you have against me leads you to think I'm a werewolf? You immediately jump to the conclusion that I'm some evil monster? Have I ever done anything monstrous to you?" He looked around and noted with some satisfaction that James and Sirius looked away "You thought 'Oh he's gone every month he must be plotting to kill me' instead of the truth."

"The truth? The truth is that you're a werewolf! There's no use denying it," Peter kept on his argument.

"No," Remus insisted "The truth is that you dislike me so much that you want me gone. You hate the idea of being alone," He accused throwing some of his own anger in there "So you fabricated this story that could potentially ruin my life!" He saw Peter about to argue again "Don't even bother Peter I know you're the one who laced the taps with silver. Honestly," He breathed "Who tries to kill someone they like?"

"You're a monster!"

"You poisoned me!" He shouted. "I have an allergy and you laced my food with something that would have killed me!" Remus went over and picked up his pyjamas "I'm not staying here," He announced "Not with him. You can think all you like and when you finally come to your senses I want an apology."

He went down to the common room without a backwards glance. The weariness he still felt from the moon meant he fell asleep almost instantly. Early that morning he had hatched a plan. It was in the middle of potions when he figured out how to get them off his scent. All it took for one glance in a certain red heads direction.

"Lily I was wondering if you wanted to help me with something," He approached and begged separation from a scowling Snape walking next to her. She was wary but agreed and followed Remus outside for a private talk. He indulged his plan to her and flattered her in a way that was bound to earn him some good behaviour points.

She agreed quite quickly to his plan since she saw it as a way to get back at James and Sirius for their cruelty to Snape. The ingredients for the potion were illegal to obtain in school but Remus told her that he would sort out what they needed. A few trips to Slughorns cupboards meant that he had most of the ingredients from the first day and asking Sirius for the others meant he had all of them. Sirius didn't ask too many questions when Remus told him it was for a prank. He just winked and walked off to get a quill and his owl.

As April approached he also had the problem of James' birthday to solve. He wished that he could go into Hogsmeade with the third years but settled for asking one of the older students to get it for him.

His birthday came with much excitement. James woke the other two up before going into the common room and jumping on Remus declaring "It's my birthday!" and jumping in every direction. He demanded presents then so they all had to go and get them from their trunks.

Sirius had gotten him some kind of mirror that they could talk through to each other. "You can tell me about all the fun you'll be having over summer," He told James with a smile. Remus didn't think that was a nice thing to say since Sirius' home life was no laughing matter. But then Peter was handing over his present.

Peter had gotten him some sweets along with a new hat since his old one had went missing ever since it went under his bed. "Thanks Peter," James clapped and held his hands out expectantly for Remus' present.

He dutifully handed it over and saw James frown at the small size of his present. It morphed quickly into a smile as the little broomstick clad figure zoomed around his head "I thought it could replace your life-size one until Christmas," He said. James squealed as the broom went in a little loop.

"Love it Rem," He sang and spent half an hour lobbing sweets at it and trying to get it to perform complicated Quidditch manoeuvres.

They had started some kind of tradition with birthdays in their group. One which Peter and Sirius would be getting at the end of the year since they hadn't really declared themselves officially friends until after Christmas.

James got to go down to the kitchens and request a cake three tiers high and filled with a different filling on each layer. Remus only had eyes for the second one that was chocolate and was drooling by the time James had blew his candles out.

For that day it had seemed like what had happened at the last full moon was merely a figment of the imagination. But the next morning the truce had wore itself out. Peter was back to glaring at Remus whilst the other two mediated themselves between them. James didn't seem all that concerned for a while since he had his presents as a distraction. Sirius on the other hand seemed to have taken Remus' side. Whether it was out of belief of Remus' lie or the fact that he no longer had a bed buddy and was looking sleep deprived Remus didn't know. He was grateful for the support though and didn't complain as Sirius joined Remus on his side of the table.

It was definitely awkward sharing the group out like this which was why he was glad when the moon came. Arriving on a Friday Remus gave the excuse on Wednesday that he was going to study with Lily to Sirius and James since they had taken no interest in their upcoming exams.

In reality he was checking on their potion that was ready to be consumed and practising with Lily.

"I don't think I walk like that," He told her as she shuffled about the room.

"You do though," She insisted "You kind of keep to yourself and shrink down when you're around people."

He hadn't realised he did that "Do I always do that?" he thought back to how he moved.

"Not when you're around your friends. You're confident with them. Seem to walk with more of a spring," And she demonstrated rather embarrassingly.

"Alright," he consented "What about how I speak?"

She performed some lines in a crude accent that he was sure he didn't have. Lily forced him to listen to himself speak and noticed a hint to what she was getting at but insisted that she was just exaggerating his accent.

"What do you call them?" She asked "You're friends," She said when it showed he needed specifics.

"Oh, just Sirius, James and Peter," He told her.

"What about anything in particular I should do. Do you have any habits like Potter. He's always pushing his hair around. It makes it worse than what it normally is," Remus laughed at her observation. It was true.

"I don't think so," he told her just in case "Watch me tomorrow and see if I do." She nodded and they both walked back to the dormitory after that.

He was aware that Lily was watching him all through Thursday. It made him self aware and he had to let himself to forget about his plan altogether to relax enough to act normal for her. She showed him the notes that night and Remus had to conclude they were better than Wednesday's trial.

"Alright here's the plan. I have to go home for about seven so I'll say I need the toilet and we'll make the switch. I'm currently sleeping in the common room so you can make your escape there. Tell them that you have to go home at about two in the morning. No earlier than eleven," He corrected seeing her distraught face at being trapped with his friends for that amount of time. "Then hurry out the portrait wall and wait until the potion wears off. Remember to take it every hour before that though," He reminded to which she pulled a face at him.

"I know how polyjuice works Remus," She trilled as they left the bathroom that night.

Friday came and he was in jitters again. Sirius took him out for a nice run on the grass. It was windy but dry meaning that they could both chase each other around for a couple of hours without fear of being muddy.

Tea came and went and before he knew it he was facing Lily in the toilets. She plucked some of his hair and dropped it into the bubbling potion. There was more in her bottle that she added the other hairs to and they watched it turn a dark brown.

"God I hope you taste good," She said and blushed afterwards as her words registered something Remus didn't get. She knocked back the potion and cringed a bit. Her face soon started bubbling much like the potion and soon he was looking directly at another him.

"That's spooky," He remarked. Lily looked at her reflection in the boys mirror.

"Tell me about it," His own voice came out of Lily's mouth and they both started at the change. "At least you didn't taste nasty," she offered gathering her things together "Kind of like chocolate actually."

They bid each other goodbye and Remus hoped that his plan would work. He worried endlessly in the shack as he paced and bit his nails into his arms. When the claws came out he had to yank his hands out to stop them from scarring further.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter since i need a break to regroup for their second year.

Remus walked into his dorm room not knowing what he would find. Worry had kept him saying yes to Madam Pomphrey keeping him in an extra day and it was with great reluctance that he managed to remove himself earlier that day.

The dorm was empty and he breathed a sigh of relief. He shouldn't have been on edge, classes were still on and they had transfiguration today. There was no way they would try and incur McGonagall's wrath again.

He set his ointment down for his scars and changed into his pyjamas hoping to get a nap in his bed before the others came back. His wolf was gone and presumably with Sirius so Remus turned and collected it as he slithered into bed.

The sun had warmed it making it soothe his aches and pains and taking him into the realm of sleep quickly. It was dark when he woke up to Sirius at his back. Sitting up he dislodged the book that had been placed on top of him whilst Sirius worked on an essay.

"I'm glad you're sleeping in your bed again," Sirius told him retrieving the book.

"I only meant to have a nap," Remus yawned rubbing his eyes and saw James and Peter were watching him from the bottom of the bed. Peter looked guiltily at him and cast his gaze back to his book. "I didn't realise that my bed had become so popular," He quipped.

James smirked at Sirius while he answered "Well someone wanted to make sure you weren't going to escape. Besides your beds comfy," He bounced.

"How's your mum?" Sirius changed glaring at James with rosy cheeks.

"I dunno," Remus sighed wondering what Lily did during the moon. He would have to ask her tomorrow. "She doesn't really change."

James patted him on the arm "I'm sorry." Remus shrugged pulling his arm back. It was sore from the new scratches he had.

"Did I miss anything important?" they caught him up on the classes he missed. Peter kept quiet throughout all of it and handed over his notes to James before retreating to his bed.

Lily was mad at him when he cornered her in the library the next day. She was pacing in front of him and muttering about how annoying his friends were.

"And that's not the worst of it," She continued "Sirius practically tried to force me into his bed when I said I was leaving. The nerve of him!" Probably should have informed her of his sleeping arrangements. "Then there was Peter. He kept making me look out the window and saying that I should be going soon, handing me all sorts of random things."

Oh no "What did you do with them when he gave you them?" he worried.

"I flung them away obviously. There's no way I trust them. Out of all of them James was the only one that didn't try anything funny with me. He pulled the others away when they got too much and just talked about Quidditch. It was the highlight of my night when he did that," She sighed.

"I'm sorry you had to do that," Remus apologised.

She came over and sat next to him "No, it's fine. I guess I see why you're so mad at them now. I would be with room mates like that."

"They're not always like that," he defended "It's just recently. Peter made a stupid accusation and it's kind of been driving us apart."

That piqued her interest "What kind of accusation?"

Like he was going to tell her. "None that matters now. You've helped fix it in any case and I owe you a debt of gratitude," He lavished making her chuckle.

"I'm holding you to that."

It took a few days for Peter to make contact with Remus again. He didn't really want to get close to the boy after the near reveal yet as soon as Peter asked Remus to pass him his quill he knew he would. It wasn't Peter's fault that Remus was a monster and for all intents and purposes he had been right.

By the time he was leaving to see his 'Mum' again they were sharing sweets and helping each other in class. He didn't bother Remus when he declared he was going home again and actually gave him a sugar quill to suck on while he waited to floo home.

The last moon of the school year was a good one. The heat must have made him lethargic since there were only bruises as he came out of the hospital wing. He was well enough to attend classes on the afternoon.

The anticipation of summer was dawning on everyone. James was talking none stop about his Quidditch tickets that they all had and was often told off for doodling brooms on his essays. The teachers, while they still packed on some work and extended it to over the holidays, had classes that were more fun and relaxed. With nothing left to teach until next year they drew out lessons for more group work which just had everyone talking about their plans for the summer.

The only downside to the approach of summer was Sirius. His mood had dropped dramatically just like before Christmas. He was sullen and often went off for walks alone on the grounds. Sometimes he even joined Remus in the library to get a head start on their holiday homework.

"James said you could go to his," Remus told him. Sirius just grunted and wrote out another three lines. "I could probably talk my dad into camping if you'd like to come," Remus offered which had Sirius' quill stopping.

"Who'd look after your mum?" Right, she was ill.

He shrugged "I guess my grandma..."

Sirius sighed and flung his quill down "Stop Remus, just stop." He ran a hand through his hair "I know your mum isn't ill. We all do. I know what you are Rem. Peter was right," he hissed looking around like someone would hear them.

Remus paled but stuck to his lies "No, I told you even showed-"

"I know that wasn't you!" Sirius spat "I looked it up and found a potion that can change someone's appearance to look like another."

"So you think I-"

"I know you did," strangely there wasn't any disgust on Sirius' face despite the accusations he was throwing. "I knew from the second 'you' threw my silver clasp away like it was nothing that it wasn't you. You're a werewolf Remus."

Damn Lily. He should have told her Peter would try something like that and been more careful. Steeling himself he stared Sirius in the eyes "Alright so you know," He confessed "What are you gonna do about it? Report me to Dumbledore? The ministry? I'm not a monster Sirius! It was an accident that made me like this and I have just as much a right to be here as you," He hissed back growling slightly in his words.

Sirius didn't move away but he did pale at the mention of telling someone "The ministry? Of course not Rem I'm your friend. I'd never tell on you," Remus was almost convinced, Sirius looked quite sincere. Sirius seemed to see that too "Remus I wouldn't, I won't. I promise."

"We'll see," Remus said and removed himself from the library.

Sirius didn't bother following Remus out for which he was grateful for. He knew about his secret! Bolting back to the dorm Remus locked himself in the bathroom trying to figure out what to do now.

Sirius' mood continued to spiral down. Remus refused to talk to him, not because he was mad but because he didn't really know what to say. It had been a week and still no one had come to remove him. The days had grown hotter and James couldn't make an effort to try with Sirius anymore since he was too busy lounging on the grass outside with Peter so gradually Sirius became isolated from them as well.

Three days before they were to leave Remus sat down next to him on the grass. He was sure that Sirius wouldn't tell on him now. Not after this long. So he wanted to mend whatever was between them before they broke up.

"I wrote to my dad," He said picking at the grass "He said you can come over to the farm for a week if you like. We'll go camping in the woods and Mum can teach you about the animals we keep. Maybe you can even ride one of the horses," He nudged.

Sirius looked up "Really? Or are you just offering so I won't tell on you? Just get me to your house and obliviate me while I'm there."

"Hmm hadn't thought of that," Remus frowned at his brain. "But no. I'm making this offer because you're my friend and I thought it might be nice for us to see each other over the holidays."

"Friends?" The hopeful tone in Sirius' voice had Remus feeling terrible.

"Yeah." He plucked up more strands of grass. Making sure James and Peter were otherwise occupied in the lake he turned to Sirius quietly "You have to understand how big of a deal this is Sirius. If I'm caught it's not just expulsion I'm facing. You saw how Peter reacted, I couldn't bare it if you did the same. My hands are scarred enough without you slipping silver onto whatever I touch."

Sirius cringed at the silver remarks "That's what was making you bleed. Little monster," He growled looking over at Peter. "I would never-"

"I know. Now I do anyway." Sirius frowned once more over at Peter as he turned back to Remus. He had dug inside his robes for a piece of parchment and his quill. Holding them out to Sirius "What do you say then? Wanna come over?"

Two guaranteed weeks away from his family had Sirius happier. Remus' told him he would owl him the date to come over in between answering all Sirius' questions about the animals on the farm. He told Remus he would keep their visit a secret from James and Peter since he didn't want them to know Remus' secret.

The map was a work of art. They marvelled at all their hard work put on paper their last night in the castle. All of the towers in Hogwarts had been scoured and searched by the four boys and put onto one sheet of parchment. Detailed blue prints of secret passageways and hiding places that guaranteed mischief. To say they were proud was an understatement.

"We are going to rule the school next year," James told them holding the map out. "With this, we can go anywhere in the castle."

"Except the lower levels," Sirius pointed out. James scowled at him and Sirius just shrugged. It was the truth.

"We'll do them next year," James growled and cast his gaze on what had quickly become his beloved map. "For now we have this and the possibilities are endless."

"I think we should use it to plan a prank for when we come back," Peter suggested. They looked over, disbelieving that not one of them had thought of that. Noticing their approval Peter continued "We should all plan something over the holidays. One we know we can pull off with the help of the map and one that'll blow everyone away with our genius."

"Yes," James agreed stroking his chin "Okay plan time. We think of something like Peter suggested and tell it to each other at the Quidditch game. Rem, I owled your parents they said you can stay at mine the night of the match-"

"When did you-"

"Not important," James waved off. "Now, we'll meet up and swap ideas. Combine all of them together or pick the best one. Either way we'll all have a plan by the time we meet up. Agreed?"

"Agreed," They chimed

The end of the year had dawned so suddenly on them. Remus was in a compartment with all three of his friends remembering how he rode it on the way to Hogwarts. Alone and scared about his new life he had taken a huge step towards a bright future. A future that was standing on the train seats and making a dramatic speech about the importance of friendship.

"For Merlin's sake Potter shut up!" Sirius whined pulling James' leg until he sat.

"This is our last day as fist years, forgive me for making it memorable," James sniffed.

"Unbearable more like it," Remus muttered making the other two chuckle.

James carried on like he hadn't heard Remus "It's also our first time riding the train together. All of us, friends united in our crusa-" Sirius clapped his hand over James' mouth.

"Please make him stop," He appealed to Peter.

"Why? Getting teary?" Remus smirked.

"You wish Lupin," Sirius shot back.

James stopped with the speeches as the train wound into the third hour and changed it to his parents. Mr and Mrs Potter had apparently promised James a welcome back feast of all his favourites. He told Sirius about the sweet treats she baked and how she was eager for Sirius to come over and taste them.

"She loves having people tell her about her cooking. And they should, it's amazing!" He groaned patting his stomach like it was already full of Mrs Potters cooking. "Do you have any requests for when you come over? Any allergies? I probably should have asked that first," James frowned "Gonna have to tell Dad about Remus' in any case."

"I like those brownies the house elves make," Sirius told him and denied having any allergies.

All of James' hype about his parents made Remus hang around when he was ordered as James scampered to get them. He shared an amused look with Sirius and Peter almost jumping out of his skin when something clapped him on the shoulder.

"Jumpy little thing aren't you," He was pulled backwards into a hug as his dad laughed at his little scare.

"Dad," He had forgotten how much he missed his dad and clung harder to him.

"Your mum's back at the farm," he informed Remus as he let go. "I just came to make sure you were actually coming home. Also to meet your little friends," The time away from Remus had done his father a miracle. There were no dark circles under his eyes or worry lines ageing his face as there had been when Remus left in September. The smile that took up his face was sincere and full of life, not brittle and timid.

"This is Peter," He introduced just as James came back with his parents. They were an older couple who looked remarkably like James. Mrs Potter was fussing over James even though he was towing her towards them. "That's James," He pointed and pulled Sirius over "And this is Sirius."

"It's nice to meet you Sir," Sirius held his hand out. His voice taking on a stiff upper class accent.

"You too," His dad shook giving Remus an amused look.

"He's just nervous," Remus excused as James made the introductions to his own parents.

Remus could tell Sirius wasn't prepared for the onslaught that was Mrs Potter. She took one look at him and pulled him into a hug. James must have been writing to her about something from home, or they just knew the Blacks since she was muttering about his stay and asking if he wanted to stay longer.

"We'd best get going," His dad said nudging Remus to say goodbye to his friends.

"I'll see you all at the Quidditch game," He waved and helped his dad pick up his things.

Waiting until they were back on the farm Remus held in all his adventures and sorted which ones he was going to tell his parents and which he would keep for himself. The ones involving his secret were going to be kept close.

His mum pulled him into a hug as he came through the door. The time away doing just as much good to her as it did to his dad. They asked about all of his friends naturally and Remus told them all about Hufflepuff winning the house cup because James had lost the majority of theirs when he flooded the greenhouses. Three pranks later and his mum was sending concerned looks at his dad. He decided to tone down the pranks and move onto his school work.

To say they were proud was an understatement. His mum went straight for the cake they bought him and gave him a slice before tea. Before!

The inevitable eventually had to be asked though "You told no one about..."

"No," He was telling the truth at least. "Peter almost thought he figured it out but I warded him off. Sirius is the only one that knows," He mumbled that last bit.

"Sirius. The Black's boy?" His dad confirmed.

"Yeah but he's not going to tell or else he would have already," Remus rushed. "He promised and I did try and send him off the scent like I did Peter but he figured it out anyway. He promised he wouldn't," He almost begged them to believe him like he did Sirius. "You can make sure he doesn't when he comes over," Remus told them "Make him swear an unbreakable vow."

"I'll obliviate him more like it," His dad growled. His mum was too busy worrying with her hands to say much.

"No!" Remus sobbed "Please. He won't tell anyone. Please don't take away my friend."

"I'm not going to," His dad soothed "I'll just take out the information he knows about your condition."

"No. You can't. I don't know when he figured it out and if you take too much then he won't be Sirius anymore. Please dad, make him swear a vow instead," something worked since his dad calmed down a few minutes later and agreed to get Sirius to make an unbreakable vow when he came over.

Settling back into life on the farm wasn't as tough as Remus thought it would be. Waking up at the crack of dawn was no trouble for a twelve year old. Joining his Dad feeding the animals he hadn't seen in a year was brilliant. He chased their chickens around one day and took the horses out on another. He may have even given in, like he did when he was smaller, and rolled around in the mud when one of his wellies got stuck. Needless to say there was a bath waiting for him every time he came in on an evening.

His parents didn't seem as weighed down as they had, as they expected them to fall into when he returned. His dad was more than happy to let him help with chores that before he wasn't allowed to know about. The time away from them seemed to have made them see Remus as someone who was growing up and not a fragile child that had been disfigured. One that could hold his own on the farm and was open to learning about the spells his dad taught him when mum wasn't looking. It turned out that he did use some magic on the farm after all.

When the full moon came they didn't let him walk to the barn on his own, instead they walked with him and kissed him on the cheek before locking him in for the night. In the morning he woke up in his bed with breakfast beside him and his parents smiling in the kitchen when he got up.

A couple of days after the full moon Sirius arrived. Remus had the whole week planned with things they were going to do but revised them when he saw the bruise on Sirius' neck.

"Where did you get that?" He pointed.

Sirius fingered it like he had forgotten it was there. He then pointed to the one on Remus' hand "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"The-er wolf didn't like the change in scenery. He spent the moon chewing on my hands again. Hence the bandages and bruises," Remus said lightly. It wasn't all that bad, he had experienced worse.

Sirius didn't know that and paled "You did that to yourself?"

"Well, yeah. What else would it hurt. There was nothing in there with me. Anyway don't worry about it, I hurt myself every moon. These," He held up his hands "Are nothing. I lost a limb during term at Hogwarts and that hurt much worse than this."

Sirius didn't seem soothed "How do you put up with it?"

Remus shrugged "It's just life for me. Speaking of moons," He rubbed his neck "I told Dad you knew and he..."

"Went mental?"

"Yep. I managed to bargain him down from a obliviation to an unbreakable vow. So... expect that sometime this week," he cringed. Sirius didn't seem bothered by that.

"Thought as much. It's only right after all," he conceded and let Remus pull him over to their farm.

He showed Sirius the different houses for the animals and watched as amazement came over his features. They didn't have long to themselves since Remus could see his parents watching out of the farmhouse window.

Before they went in Remus had to know "You didn't tell me."

Sirius glanced towards what Remus was looking at and realised the limited time they had himself. "I said that the Potters seemed like nice people and when I refused to take back my slight on the family's honour dad did this," He pointed to his neck. "Don't worry it's nothing bad. It's just from where he dragged me to my room. The hexes hurt worse."

"Hexes?"

"My cousins were there as well. They took it upon themselves to punish me and my parents turned a blind eye to them doing so," He shrugged much like Remus did earlier. It was eerie how alike and different they were.

"Well you're here now and at James' next week," He declared leading him to the farmhouse.

His father shook Sirius' hand again more sternly this time while his mother tried to fade into the background.

"I'll be more than happy to make an unbreakable vow," He told Remus' dad which made the lines that appeared soften on his dads face. He turned to Remus' mum "It's nice to meet you Mrs Lupin," It probably was as well since he had told them she was practically dying all year.

She smiled at him and motioned for Remus to give Sirius the tour of the house. He took Sirius' arm and showed him the living room where Sirius spent ten minutes asking for Remus to show him how everything worked. He especially liked the TV.

"I need one," he moaned practically worshipping it.

"I doubt your mum would let you," Remus told him "You're just gonna have to come around here more if you wanna watch something."

He showed Sirius his bedroom and pointed to his parents next door. Sirius ran his hands over the books lining the walls "How did I know there would be some of these things here," He sneered.

"Be nice to them. They were my friends before you," Remus warned bouncing on his bed.

"Yes well," Sirius turned his nose up at them and grinned joining Remus. "It's going to be nice having a good nights sleep again," He said.

"You too?"

Sirius nodded "It's either too hot or too cold. Then I can never get comfy and when an idea comes to my mind I can't just turn over and say 'Hey Rem...'"

"I know. It's a good thing I have to wake up early. The work usually makes me pass out by dark but on the nights it doesn't I barely get any sleep."

Sirius spotted the wolf on top of Remus' pillow and immediately snatched it up. He fiddled around with it for a while before stopping and bursting into laughter. "Oh Merlin I just got your dads joke. 'Thought of you,'" He held the wolf up to a frustrated Remus "Brilliant!"

"Yes well, keep your revelations to yourself when we get to school," He warned.

Remus' dad shooed them out the house after an hour so Remus took Sirius to see the chickens. It was much more fun chasing them around with Sirius than it had been on his own. They made a game out of how many chickens they could get on their side of the pen. Remus was gutted when he lost by two chickens and a rooster to someone who hadn't even seen one except on his plate.

They ran around the farm for the rest of the day until Remus' mum called them in. Talk over tea consisted of a subtle interrogation of Sirius. Remus' mum eventually nudged his dad to stop when she spotted the bruise on Sirius' neck and asked where it came from. He lied and said he knocked into something but Remus' mum had spent most of her life lying and like Remus could spot one a mile off.

They were kinder to Sirius after that. His mum changed topics to the things Remus had told them about their days at school. Remus felt like hitting Sirius when he told his parents about how they met and the grudge war that he followed. A soft telling off belying their pride in Remus' cunning followed.

"Dad's taking us camping on Wednesday. So you're gonna have to help on the farm before we go," Remus told him grinning at his little revenge.

Sirius paled "What exactly am I going to have to do?"

"Remus," His dad reprimanded and turned to Sirius "Don't worry it's not a lot. You can just help him," He pointed at his smirking son "With his chores."

Sirius turned to him "What do you do?"

"Take the horses for a ride, feed the chickens, pigs, collect the eggs and milk the cow. I usually help with the vegetables too on an evening, but it's just watering them and checking to see if they're growing." Sirius had perked up slightly at the mention of the animals "Don't worry I'll just give you the hard jobs."

"Remus," His mum this time.

"Fine, you can have the easy ones," He conceded.

It turned out even the easy ones were a challenge to Sirius. Having never had a pet nor seen any of these animals before he was out of his depth about how to treat and complete the chose he was given. Milking their cow had to be taught seventeen times and still Remus ended up taking over from him.

Sirius was better at feeding the animals than any of the more hands on kind of jobs like checking for eggs and making sure the pigs didn't escape as they went to feed them. Once they had finished all of their chores for the day they spent their time playing on the farm. Weaving with glee around the animals until the sun went down.

At six the next morning Remus was awake bright and early ready to give Sirius his first riding lesson. The boy had other plans though when Remus couldn't wake him up first try.

"Sirius," He whined pulling on the boys shoulder "Come on, mum will have breakfast ready and then we have to feed the chickens."

A groan was all the response he got. Half an hour later and still no Sirius, Remus' dad popped his head in and told Remus to let him sleep in.

"Not everyone's used to this kind of life. Sirius probably hasn't woken up for six in his entire life," He remarked handing some toast over and pulling the back door open.

"But I was gonna give him his first riding lesson," he pouted.

"You still can, just wait until he wakes up a bit more. Go easy on him as well. I remember when I first rode a horse. They're softer than brooms but I was aching in the morning," He shuddered leading his son to the barn.

Sirius came out of the farmhouse at nine. His hair was uncombed and he was slouching his way over to Remus like he had spent the night plotting mischief. Remus didn't care though and led him to their little stable, barn hybrid that housed the rest of the animals on a full moon when the shed was otherwise inhabited.

"Pick one," He told Sirius and gestured to the chestnut brown on the right and the black one on the left. Their other brown horse was out in the fields with his dad. He wanted to try and put him in for a show again and try to win some money.

"A horse?" Sirius squeaked.

"What else?"

"I've never ridden one before," he told Remus quietly. Leaning in like the horses could sense his fear.

"I know, that's why I'm teaching you. Besides you've rode a broom before. It's kind of like that, my dad says, only they actually have a mind of their own." He gestured towards the horses again.

Sirius timidly took the brown one and seemed to be having some inner battle with himself as Remus saddled them up. When asked if he was ready again Sirius nodded determinedly and let Remus push him onto the horse. He got on his own telling Sirius what to do to make it turn and stop. He was hesitant at first and soaked up any information Remus could tell him about riding. As soon as they got onto the fields Remus heard a squeak or a muffled curse as Sirius got used to the horse. After an hour he was more confident and made the horse do slightly more adventurous things other than trot slowly behind Remus.

They stopped at the foot of one of the fields to give the horses a break and also because Sirius had almost fell off again. Grateful for the reprise Sirius fell to the grass handing the reins to Remus.

"So what do you think of riding then?" He asked smiling.

"It's..." He probably didn't want to hurt Remus' feelings "Different. Like your dad said. It's kind of like a broom but I think it's so much more scarier."

Remus laughed "But you're up fifty feet in the sky. At least if you fall of a horse you won't die from the drop."

Sirius eyed his horse again "I wouldn't be so sure."

They moved onto the topic of camping which was a major conversational topic back at the farmhouse that night as well. They were setting off early, Sirius groaned at the time, and trekking through the woods that surrounded the farm. Remus and his dad had found the perfect location to camp at and it only took them half an hour to get there.

"Now there are rules," He warned Remus groaned knowing what was coming. "No magic. Not from myself and definitely not from one of you two." Remus nodded.

"Wait, we're camping the muggle way?" Remus smirked at the curiosity lying underneath Sirius' abashed look.

"That's the only way to camp," Remus' dad declared "We wizards always take the easy route. Never really appreciate the whole experience of camping when you have an oven in the tent. Now then onto rule number two..." And he continued to tell them about everything they could and could not do. Remus wasn't allowed near the fire after last time they had been camping he had burnt the edge of the tent. Sirius and Remus were to stay together and near the camp at all times so they didn't get lost. If they did get lost they were to wait near the stream not far from the camp and wait for Remus' dad to get them.

By the end of the night Sirius was asking Remus more questions about muggle fires and putting up tents than he knew how to answer.

"Have you ever been camping before?" Remus eventually queried.

"Nope," Sirius grinned, full of excitement. "Can you honestly see my family taking me anywhere that might have the chance of running into muggles?"

"I've never met your family," He hadn't seen them at the train station and made sure he kept an eye out the next time they were boarding the Hogwarts Express.

"You don't want to," Sirius promised. He started giggling a couple of minutes later. When Remus asked about it he just waved him away "Just imagining my mum romping around the forest. She'd probably take one look at it and obliterate it from the universe. Dad would maybe give it a go just to prove a point that he was better than a muggle. He'd give in though and use magic. Reg would probably be up to it," Sirius mused making more elaborate stories up about his family as his excitement mounted.

They didn't get to sleep until two in the morning which meant that they were both dark tired when it was time to get up. Sirius could barely move after his stunt on the horse. Remus laughed at him all the way down the stairs. He couldn't even sit down because he swore his muscles wouldn't let him back up.

"I'm going to kill you Lupin," he snarled into his drink "You did this on purpose. Making me sore just as we're taking a half hour hike through the forest."

"I thought you'd be alright," He choked out between laughs.

Whatever Sirius was going to retort was cut off as Remus' dad came through the door. His mum wasn't far behind him making sure that everything was packed in their three big bags. She was going to stay behind and work on the farm

"Ready to go?"

Remus whooped and took off out the door. Sirius was less enthusiastic and limped after him. The hike through the forest looked to be taking its toll on Sirius. He trailed behind and moaned about his stiff legs. After many amused looks shared with his dad Remus took pity on him and offered him a piggy back ride the rest of the way.

The clearing presented itself just as Remus was about to collapse under the weight of Sirius. "Thank God," He groaned dropping him to the ground.

"Ow!" Sirius pointed out.

"You weigh a tonne," Remus panted. His dad had set the bags down and was waiting for them to catch their breath.

"Right," He said calling their attention "I'm going to collect the firewood. You two get the tent and sleeping bags set up."

Remus saluted as his dad went off and helped Sirius up. The tent was in one of the larger bags. As the poles and fabric fell out he caught Sirius looking at horror at the puzzle that was the tent.

"Why's your dad so mean? Magic could have had this up in minutes," He whined presenting sad eyes to Remus.

"But then we wouldn't have the experience," Remus told him looking for the instructions. "Besides I've done this before. Look for a small pole that fits in with this one," He read out and held up a pole for Sirius' approval. "So have you come up with anything yet. Concerning the map?" he clarified.

Sirius shook his head handing over two poles for Remus to slide through the fabric "I've been kind of busy trying not to get hexed. I figure I'll come up with something at James' next week."

"Looking forward to it?" He remembered his reaction to Mrs Potter at the train station.

Sirius pulled a face "Yes and no. Potter and I aren't exactly the chummiest of mates but it's better than staying at home. I wish you could be there too Rem," Remus smiled.

"You'll have fun without me," He consoled.

"If I don't kill him," Sirius arched his eyebrow brining Remus to laughter. "What about you then? What big plan have you got?"

Remus didn't know if he was ready to indulge his idea yet. It was still in the thought stage and hadn't exactly become a plan. There were others floating around in his head also that had potential.

"Can't tell you," He eventually settled on "It's going to be kept a secret until the Quidditch game."

Sirius rolled his eyes grinning while he did "Drama Queen. You're worse than James sometimes. Always wanting to make a spectacle about how much smarter you are than us."

"I'm not smarter than you," Remus chided "Just more cautious. It makes me cunning in that respect unlike you and him who don't know the meaning of the word subtlety."

They chatted while they worked passing forth comments about their other friends or what was happening in the forest around them. Remus' dad came back with the firewood and showed them both how to light it the muggle way. He set up a smaller one for Sirius so he could give it a try, making sure Remus stayed at a reasonable length from both.

Remus couldn't contain the smile at the satisfied look on Sirius' face when the first flame ignited on the wood. He looked so proud of himself over something so muggle. The fire was just for show to keep them warm. His dad didn't really know how to cook things over a fire and so had bought a muggle portable barbecue. Sirius wasn't allowed near this one and had to take a back seat with Remus. It didn't dampen his spirits though since he spent his time boasting about his little fire that roared alongside the big one.

It was extinguished as the rain started. Emergency protocol had been activated. The bags were stowed in the tent and Remus had to be bundled up in his sleeping bag to stop the chill getting to his bones. They ate the grilled meat watching the rain make puddles outside while his dad told them stories about the different wildlife that lived in the woods.

The stories evolved from tales about deer and their fawns to those of monsters roaming the forest. Ten feet tall hipogriffs that devoured anyone who wasn't noble of heart. A quick goodnight after these scarring tales was all they heard before his dad was zipping up and going to sleep.

"I've just realised how mean my dad is," Remus mused in the dark. The moon was waxing behind the rain clouds and glowed through their grey cover.

Sirius chuckled "I like him." They both had their sleeping bags up to their necks and three layers of clothing on underneath. The cold had started seeping into the summer atmosphere along with the rain and bounced off their little tent trying to penetrate through their flimsy fabrics. "You know when you got sick before the full moon?"

"Yeah," Remus prompted.

"Does that always happen? It's just I don't think I'd ever seen you like that before. Maybe you were just good at hiding it," Sirius mumbled.

Remus sighed into the shadows. "It doesn't. You've seen how I get, I have more energy than I need on a full moon. That time was a one off."

"Oh," Sirius nodded as if that confirmed what he theorised "Did you find out what had caused that to happen then. It's just, I don't want it to happen again and it would be helpful if I knew what had started it in the first place," he rambled.

"I actually thought you were in on it," Remus confessed. "Peter gave me a sugar quill earlier that day. He must have been testing his theory, though why he was I didn't know, anyone could have an allergy to silver. Not to mention I'd already told you about it so it wasn't like I was hiding it from you," He ranted. "But he'd laced the quill with silver. The silver from your clasp. He must have taken it and filed it off like he did with the sinks. Grinded it into powder and spread it over the quill. I didn't realise until I heard Peter had been through your things. I thought I was just ill, but now..."

"He tried to kill you?" Sirius gasped, shocked. "That little rat!"

"I don't think he was trying to kill me," Remus defended. Now that they were friends again he didn't want a reason for Sirius to attack Peter next time they saw each other. "I just think he was testing how bad my allergy actually was. Usually silver like that would kill a werewolf but because I pulled through he was probably put off a bit."

"No," Sirius protested "He was trying to kill you! I can't believe him!" He raged "No one gives someone something they're allergic to unless they mean to harm them. Remus, if he thought you were a werewolf he was knowingly poisoning you so you'd die. Probably thought he'd get an Order of Merlin or something," Sirius growled.

"Well it's done now," Remus argued "So you're going to have to let it go. Sirius I mean it," He warned watching as Sirius fidgeted with his sleeping bag "It's done. Peter and I are friends again. There's no reason to get mad at him." Sirius was glowering at the top of their tent. "Sirius?"

"Fine," he spat.

Remus could see that he was lying. Sirius wasn't going to let it lie. He just hoped Sirius would let him in on what he was planning. Or at least do it where Remus could thwart him. Needless to say the next meeting with Peter wasn't going to be pleasant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished first year. The rest of the summer is more important to the second half which is why i haven't finished it. All wil be clear in seco d year.


	10. Chapter 10

Laughing uncontrollably he let Sirius do the talking, although, it seemed the boy was just as overwhelmed as himself.

"What happened?" It seemed obvious what happened but they needed to hear it from James' mouth.

A scowl set firmly in place and a heated glare sent to his father James said, "My dad made this stuff... It's not that bad!" Bad didn't even cover it. So used to seeing James' unruly locks they were unprepared for the slick neatness that greeted them.

"Why?" Remus managed to choke out as a look from his father sobered him up.

"Dad wanted me to look presentable for the world cup. Apparently he's going to talk with your family," and didn't that just have Sirius on red alert. "But as soon as that's over this gunk is coming off. I hate it. It always makes me look half bald."

"That's because you're so used to seeing your hair anywhere but on your head," Remus quipped. He quieted as his dad came over.

"I'll pick you up when it's over. Be good for Mr Potter, and no causing mischief," his dad mumbled as he pulled Remus into a hug. "It was good having you Sirius," he even pulled Sirius into a small hug. After a whole week of getting to know Sirius Remus' father didn't see any need for an unbreakable vow. That wasn't to say threats hadn't been made if Sirius were to betray their trust.

James, noticing the show of affection, raised an eyebrow at Sirius to explain himself. When that didn't work he verbalised his request with a "Well?"

Sirius just shrugged and changed the subject to where Peter was. They found their other friend inside the Potter's tent, which was definitely magical, he was lounging on one of the many beds that had been set up for them. It turned out Peter was the first to arrive. James had thought Remus would be next and Sirius coming with his family. Revealing that they came together Peter was just as suspicious as James about how this happened.

No amount of prying got Sirius nor Remus to tell them and eventually they dropped the matter. Instead, Remus and Sirius started coming up with names to call James with his new look. Peter took up the game with vigour and by the time Mr Potter came into the tent they were all doubled over with laughter.

"Your parents are here Sirius," he said.

The grin slipped off Sirius' face as his skin turned even paler than usual. Remus watched as before his eyes Sirius' spine straightened. His whole demeanour changed until it seemed like a stranger was standing in front of him.

"Where?" Mr Potter led him out.

"You think he'll be alright?" Remus asked James.

"Sure," James said. Remus didn't believe him. "At least he's coming home with me. One week away from those snakes should be able to help him last the summer."

The air in the tent seemed deflated now Sirius was gone. Remus tried as much as he could to carry on like everything was alright. However, the bruise he remembered on Sirius' neck made it hard.

Mr Potter came back an hour later. Flustered and muttering under his breath he took one look at James and told him he could take the stuff out of his hair if he wanted.

"There's no use trying to be civil with people like that," Mr Potter commented.

"But you don't mean Sirius," James contradicted.

Mr Potter stopped and sighed. "Of course not. Somehow that boy's managed to escape those genes."

James had his hair back to normal as everyone started to gather in the stands. James went overboard with his souvenirs and was near vibrating with excitement as they waited for the opening ceremony.

The game lasted three days. Remus had never seen James this animated in his life, and he had spent the better year pulling pranks with the boy. James swore and shouted manoeuvres to the players. Truthfully, the only reason he wasn't on the pitch was because Mr Potter had a restraining arm around his middle ever since the first lunge.

England lost spectacularly.

True to his word Remus' father was waiting for him as they trudged back to the tent. He too wore a sombre expression as news of England's defeat had reached his ears through the radio. He soon perked up when Remus fell over his own feet.

"Come on you, time to go home," Remus let himself be picked up and went to collect his things from the Potter's tent.

It seemed he walked into some kind of stand off as he walked out. His father teamed with Mr Potter had taken a stance in front of James and Peter. On the opposite side Remus finally got his first look at Sirius' family. Mr Black looked a lot like Sirius, although Remus thought this was probably the other way around. His face was angular and stern where Sirius' was still losing puppy fat. Not to mention it looked like the man hadn't cracked a smile in his life. Mrs Black was worse. Beautiful but intimidating, she sneered down at Remus as he joined James. Sirius was cowering behind his mother with another boy. Younger, it seemed Mr Black had strong genes as he too looked like Sirius.

"Sirius will be fine with us for a few more days," Mr Potter. If Mr Black wasn't acting as a shield Remus had no doubt that Sirius would be back at the Potter's house by now. "James has been looking forward to it."

Being civil did nothing. These kinds of people would always look down their noses at others. Remus didn't k ow what to do as he stood there. His father seemed to have a pretty food idea as he hauled Remus from the stand off.

"But-"

"We'll do more harm than good," he snapped and took Remus' bag from him. "If you want him to come over again then the less they know about us the better."

Remus could understand that, and willingly let his dad apparate them out. He didn't know what happened to Sirius and only found out from James two weeks after that Sirius ended up going home instead of with him. It wasn't a nice thought what he was going through so Remus tried writing to him. He only problem with that is that he ran out of things to say when it was just a one sided conversation. Sirius never wrote back.

By the time the train whistled on September 1st Remus was one step away from climbing over people's trunks to get a glimpse of Sirius anywhere. He found him already on the train staring forlornly out the window.

Not caring about Sirius' mood he pounced on the boy. "It's good to see you."

The hesitance at which Sirius returned the hug had Remus subtly trying to see if Sirius was hurt. "You too."

Not wasting anymore time Remus told "Well the good news is that my dad liked you enough to invite you around again. If you want."

"I dunno..." something was different. It was almost like Sirius had drawn into himself.

Thankfully James had chose that time to burst into their carriage. "We're back!" he whooped and sat himself between them. "Isn't it wonderful, another glorious year at school."

"There's something not right with you," Remus joked. "No one gets excited about school."

James rethought his line "Alright. Another glorious year of pranks then. Happy now Mr Right. I swear Sirius we don't even need to be at school before we encounter a professor."

Remus shoved him for the name calling before sobering along with James as they realised Sirius was still not his usual self.

Deciding this was something better addressed together Remus went off to find Peter. He found him trying to haul his trunk on the train and gladly helped.

"Something's wrong with Sirius," Remus caught up. "I think his parents might have said something."

"We'd better hurry then. Merlin knows what James is saying to him." they managed to get Peter to their carriage safely and entered into a shouting match.

Even if he was screeching like a banshee it was nice to see Sirius acting like himself. James kept egging him on when it looked like he might calm down. As it was Sirius shouted for three hours straight about anything and everything before collapsing from exhaustion.

"Feel better?" James asked.

"Much," Sirius croaked.

"Good. Next time you feel like that you just have a nice little shout. It's bad enough they have you over the summer, don't let them take the rest of your year," James said.

They had missed the trolley and spent the rest of their time bemoaning their empty stomachs. As soon as the train stopped they were pestering a prefect about how they got to the great hall. Even when they got there they had to sit through the first year sorting.

"So this is why everyone glared at us," Peter observed.

"Is it just me or do those first years look tasty?" James growled.

"And I thought I was the animal here," Remus mumbled to Sirius. He heard a chuckle in his ear.

"Maybe you're not the only one with a moon problem at this table," Sirius shot back.

James was drooling by the time the last first year sat at their table. Remus watched as he perked for all of three seconds before Dumbledore took the podium.

"Do you think if we killed him the food would come faster?" Peter theorized. The others took the idea on board. By the end of his speech they had a fool proof plan of assassination that was only thwarted as the food came.

Stomachs full they toddled up to their dorm for their first night back. No energy was left to talk. They had the earliest night of their Hogwarts careers and were asleep by half seven.

The next night was a different story. Having no homework to speak of the talk of pranks were at the top of their list.

"I know there's something brewing in there," James said as he knocked on Remus' head.

"Nothing of interest," Remus brushed off and retreated to his side of the room as James tried to flatten him. "I got a warning off my parents because of you three. You're a bad influence. So this year I'm focusing on my school work."

"I smell lies," Sirius joined and hopped onto Remus' bed. "He's lying James. He has something juicy for us."

"Why don't you ask Peter. If you ask me he's been too quiet. Something's up," Remus said and sent a mouthed 'sorry' to Peter as the two boys rounded on him.

Weirdly enough Peter did have something to contribute to the conversation. "It's about the map," which piqued everyone's attention. "I had this idea over the summer. See, even if we do explore every crevice of Hogwarts we're bound to leave something out. We had rats over the summer and dad used this spell to find them. It looked into every corner of the house to find them and I thought if we could find a spell like that. One that looks in to every crevice and reports back to us, then we'll have even the hidden parts of Hogwarts we can't find on our map." For a while everyone sat in silence. "Or not, I mean-"

"Peter shush," James ordered and went over to inspect Peter's head. "Can you believe it Sirius?"

"I know. Who'd have thought our little Pete..." Sirius trailed.

Remus flashed a grin at Peter "Genius."

"So you think it's possible?" Peter asked eagerly.

James just shushed him again. "Even if it's not don't ruin it just yet with questions."

Remus sensed a hesitance within everyone with Peter's idea. It was too good. If it turned out such a thing wasn't possible he knew it would crush them. Which is why he did it alone. Together James and Sirius would have been jittery and inconsolable. Alone he could at least face the disappointment and try and find another solution to soften the blow to the others.

So, one night whilst the others were sleeping, Remus set off. He left James his cloak. Not having need of it after weeks spent breaking in last year without it. As he crept amongst the shelves he was more than surprised to find Peter cowering under one of the tables.

"What are you doing here?" Remus hissed and joined him in case there was someone else there with them.

"Same as you," Peter mumbled back. "I couldn't leave the idea alone so I thought I'd check it out."

Remus spied a book in Peter's hands and asked "Find anything then?"

Peter shook his head and crawled out from under the table. "I think I might be looking in the wrong places."

"Maybe," Remus agreed as he took the book from Peter's possession. "We'll start with charms and work our way to defence. That's where the locating spells usually are. We should find something at least."

Handing off books he grabbed he let Peter take them to one of the tables, listening with a small grin on his face at Peter's eagerness as he quickly glanced at the index before coming back.

"I hope I'm right," Peter confessed. Remus was looking through a defence book about locating dark creatures and happy for the distraction.

"I hope you are too. It'll save us years exploring this place." Not to mention help James and Sirius with their plans to take over the school by seventh year.

"That too," Peter said and this time Remus really looked up.

He had a feeling about what was eating at Peter. It happened to him too on days he couldn't believe his luck. "Just because you're not on their wavelength doesn't mean they don't like you."

"I know," Peter waved off quickly. Remus was just about to go back to his book when Peter said, "It's just that I don't really have that many good ideas. Even the ones I do have usually turn out... well you remember what I thought you were. I just want to prove that I'm as good as them."

"You are," Remus agreed. "It doesn't matter if you're the one with good ideas Peter you're our friend. Besides, I'm not exactly like them either. I think they're idiots most of the time. Especially when they're being handed out detentions."

"Yeah but you're smart," Peter pressed. "Even when you don't join in you complain about how they could have done something better. They spend most of their times after pranks thinking over what you tell them you know. I don't get that."

"You don't need it," Remus tried again. "And if you do then you can spend the rest of your life gloating over the fact that, without you, there would be no complete map."

He let that sink in. "You found something?"

Remus pointed out the paragraph and had Peter helping him steal the referenced books to take back to the dorm. Sirius poured over the information the next night. Remus remarked to himself that if school work was half as interesting to him as pranks Sirius would be top of his class. James was torn between checking the information Sirius gathered and grovelling at Peter's genius. The boy himself was eating the attention up and eagerly told James about some of the spells that could be their salvation.

"So how are we going to do this?" James asked one night. They were all huddled on Peter's bed looking over the stolen books. After extensive research and more than one calamity in the dorm they had perfected the spell they needed. It acted like a sonar that spread however long the caster wanted it and came back with a complete picture it showed once it had finished in a map like formation above the wand.

"I say like last year," Sirius said. "We all take a section of the castle and write it up. Bring it back here for our scribe," James bowed. "To perfect on the real thing."

"I want the dungeons," Remus called first.

"Damn, fine I want the lower levels," James chimed in.

"I call the classrooms," Peter butted in.

"What?" Sirius whined, "I don't want the towers."

"Should've called first then," James grinned and started making plans for their nightly excursions.

The next weekend they were all prepared. Their minds were set and wands bright as they set off from Gryffindor tower. Sirius didn't have to venture far since he argued if he was doing the towers he would start with their own. Remus was eager to hear of any hidden passageways Sirius found and almost wished he had asked for the towers.

But he had chosen the dungeons for a reason. Not only so he could sneak into the Slytherin common room one of these weekends but because he wanted to look in the real dungeons again. He remembered what James said about rat bones being found and after listening to Peter's stories about rats in his own house he thought the bones being there were a tad suspicious. Sure, it could have been cats but what were the rats doing down there in the first place?

Any creature looked for a safe place to nest. A rat liked places dark but it would need to be near somewhere that would give it food as well. As far as Remus could tell the only source of food they would have would be from the Slytherin common room which was too high up from the dungeons to be an easy source.

As Remus cast light on the bony tails and tiny skulls he noted the decomposition. He searched around to see if he could find fresh ones. Further and further he went. Down stairs and down some more and still the bones went on. Finally at the third floor the dungeons went down Remus cast the spell they had learnt. A spark of red shot off from his wand and echoed out into the dark cavern. When it came back the red gathered itself above his wand to form the floor of the dungeon. Three corridors that sectioned off into cells before leading to another set of stairs.

"How far does they go down?" He asked himself and set his wand to the floor as he sketched the schematics onto a sheet of parchment. Deciding to come back and test the depth of Hogwarts next week he trailed back up to the second and first floor to add them onto his shoddy map. Taking one last look to the bones under his feet he swore to himself he would find out what had killed these creature. And they had been. The layout they were set in and the dents in some of their skulls could only indicate to some kind of murder. One which had piqued his curiosity.

James was last to come back to the room. Having the kitchens on his levels the three remaining boys knew he would be spending most of his time there before coming back. They just thanked Merlin that he had the cloak with him. No doubt he would get caught otherwise.

Sirius was naturally waiting for them as they came in. Pouting on his bed he waited all of three minutes before showing them the passageways he had found in Gryffindor tower.

"That one leads to the girls dormitories," Peter mumbled in wonder. He then snatched the parchment for a thorough examination.

"Merlin help us when puberty strikes," Remus muttered and heard Sirius snort behind him.

James had the decency to enter the room laden with muffins. He spilled them into the centre of the room as he asked the others for their rough sketches.

A frown pulled over his face as he looked at the one they had previously drawn up. "We're going to have to scrap this one aren't we?"

"Suppose," Sirius agreed. After all they couldn't leave it lying around for anyone to find. They also couldn't keep it since Sirius' new sketch of the tower showed they had missed some things. "How about we burn it tomorrow. Give it a proper goodbye with cakes and music playing in the background."

"Whatever you want Sirius," Remus comforted. He handed over his own scrap to James and showed him how best to lay it out. The way Remus saw it their design last year was always doomed to fail. This time they should put the great hall in the middle. "It's the focal point of Hogwarts," He argued and explained how the great hall led to everywhere. There would be passages that would lead to his own work on the dungeons and another to James' floors and the kitchens. "Then we can put the towers here."

"It's going to massive," James noted.

"It needs to be," Remus said. James got to work.

Unfortunately Remus couldn't go back to the dungeons the next week. The reason why hit him suddenly on Wednesday. He was in the middle of History of Magic when he noticed his hands tapping loudly on the desk. His legs were starting to cramp from being seated so long and, as much as he tried, he couldn't pay attention to what was being said. He put it down to Professor Binn's teaching methods but the same happened in potions. It was as his sleeping concoction that was putting everyone else to sleep around him blew up that Remus finally asked what the date was.

For the first time since being bitten he had forgotten about the moon. The day dulled around him as his plans vanished with the upcoming night of horror. Sirius caught his eye and after class told Peter and James that he was taking Remus to the dorm for a lie down. He must have looked sick since they wished him a speedy recovery.

"I just forgot," Remus mumbled.

"I know," Sirius said. He locked their dorm door. "Do you think you'll be alright tonight?"

"Doubtful," Remus shuddered at the thought. "With going home for two months and then being back here it's bound to be confused."

"What happens?" Sirius asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, where do you... change?" he amended.

"Ah," Remus nodded. "The Shack in Hogsmeade. Dumbledore had it all planned out when he came to see us. Madame Pomphrey comes to collect me on a morning."

"Wait, she doesn't walk you in?" Remus shook his head. "Why not?"

He shrugged. "It's horrible Sirius. Even before hand. I mean, what if I was late getting to the shack and she walked me in. I'd be a murderer come morning."

"Still," Sirius argued. "She could at least, I dunno... can't she slip you something. Just so you won't gnaw on yourself?"

Remus, again, shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. The amount of potion it would take to knock my other self out would kill me before it got the chance to work. It's better I just suffer through it and have her patch me up."

Sirius had started pacing restlessly in the dorm. It wasn't unlike the times he was pranking with James and they had encountered a problem. His face drawn he would usually continue these motions until whatever was bothering him sorted itself out in his head. This time Remus knew he would be pacing until he died. He couldn't be solved.

"Sirius it's fine."

"It's not," He snapped. "I can't believe this happened to you."

"It happens to others, why should I be the special one," Remus shrugged back. "Sirius, there's nothing you can do. I've had this since I was six. We spent years looking for a cure or a way to make it better. There is none. The sooner you accept that the sooner you can take me out for a run." He was starting to get restless again.

"Fine," He pouted and grabbed his cloak. "We'll go for a run but I'm promising you now. On my oath as a prankster and your friend, I'm going to find a way to help you." Remus couldn't help smiling at the sincerity in Sirius' voice.

They skipped the rest of their lessons to spend it outside in the September sun. The lake was fun and secluded with most other students being back at the castle. Sirius told all sorts of stories about the merpeople that lived in the black lake. Remus didn't believe half of them but Sirius swore that at least one of them were true since it happened to a cousin of his.

Finally, just as the first students started trickling out, they seated themselves under a tree near Hagrid's hut.

Remus didn't want to dwell on the minutes that were passing him by. His need to run had been sated for the time being so he turned his mind to other matters.

"James told me you didn't go to his."

"My parents didn't think him a suitable friend," Remus could practically taste the sarcasm.

"But they let you come to mine. Surely a half blood is worse than a blood traitor," He had heard James call himself one proudly many a times.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "Which is why they didn't know I was with you," he confessed. "My uncle was around for a few dinners as I came back. He's nice and I told him about you and James and Peter. Truthfully I thought I wouldn't get to yours either and was waiting until the last minute to send a letter off but my uncle caught me. He took me down and said to my mum that he was having me for the week. He said he would drop me off with Potter for the World Cup and it was only when he asked for your address that I realised he'd lied for me."

"So your parents didn't know you were at mine," Sirius shook his head even though it wasn't a question. "Sneaky. You'll have to do the same next time."

"Did your dad really like me?" Sirius asked. "Or was he just being polite because you do?"

"I think he liked you," Remus remembered his dad asking if he had heard from Sirius recently. It seemed his parents knew something funny was going on in Sirius' house. "If nothing else at least James' parents like you. From the letter I got they were almost going for custody by the end of the summer."

"Ha ha," Sirius mocked.

"It's true," Remus remembered the letter well. "They probably think your James' twin they lost at birth." Speaking of whom the boy had found them after looking sitting on Peter's shoulders.

Running over Remus didn't give them a chance to sit down as his energy had came back. Instead he led James on a merry game of tag that ended when Hagrid called out it was getting dark.

True to what he said the wolf didn't like the change of scenery. Remus woke up on Friday morning with a headache and a freshly chewed leg.

"I don't know what it is about that specific leg," Madame Pomphrey fussed.

"Me either," Remus told her. He had taken one look when he woke and found it still bloody. The skin hadn't grown back in some places and the matron told him it would take another two days before it would.

"Then there's your head," She tutted and inspected it. "It seems you banged it last night. Although you would have had to do it a lot. It's pretty deep. I was surprised you were even alive." So, chewed up leg and the wolf had repeatedly banged its head. Remus knew there was no way he was keeping this from James and Peter. "Your hair will be back by tomorrow as well," She concluded with and gave him a concoction to drink.

He tried to have another nap. Convincing himself that if he did he might sleep through the whole recovery process. It seemed to be working too, until something nudged him awake.

It was dark with only a few scant lamps lit. Remus couldn't see anything and thought about screaming when a familiar smell drifted to his nose. He let Sirius nudge him and climb in. Careful to keep his leg as far away from the wriggling boy as he could he pulled the stolen invisibility cloak from his head and frowned at Sirius' sheepish grin.

"Thought you might like company," Sirius explained.

"If James finds out you took this without his permission..." Remus trailed. Both of them knew how precious the cloak was to James.

"He won't. I'm going back soon. I just wanted to see you. You're sometimes out by now," Something was shoved into his hands. "Also brought you this." It was a cupcake.

"Thanks but I'm not allowed anything solid until morning," He put it to the side for later nevertheless.

"How come?"

"My leg, the pain makes it hard to keep anything down. Then there's my head. Pomphrey thinks I might be concussed. So, no solids until she says so," Sirius grinned at the Pomphrey voice he adopted at the end of his speech. "You didn't have to come."

Sirius scoffed, "'Course I did. Besides, I couldn't sleep. My bed buddy's taken ill you see."

"Ah, so that's the reason you're here. Not to see if I'm alright but to get a good night's sleep. Merlin Black you are selfish," They giggled quietly into the night.

"Oh, speaking of bedmates I thought you might like to see him too," Something fluffy was placed on his chest. Looking up Remus met the dull eyes of Romulus who had mysteriously disappeared after Sirius left his house over the summer.

"Knew you'd nicked it," He accused.

"I didn't nick it," Sirius defended aghast. "I found him in my bag. Face it Rem, he likes me more."

"I'm surprised he's still alive. Would have thought strict parents like yours might have set it on fire," He felt Sirius shrugging against him. Being careful of his scratches Remus picked the wolf up and set it next to Sirius. "I think he does like you more. So long as you keep him safe I don't have a problem with you keeping him."

"Really? I mean, sure, if you want," Remus grinned at Sirius' attempt at nonchalance and.

"So what do the others think I'm doing? Just so I know in case I slip up," Like he did with Lily and the polyjuice potion.

"You ran off quickly so I told the other two I found you climbing one of the chandeliers and had to bring you to Pomphrey when you fell," A hand tapped his head. "Looks like I got it spot on. These injuries can easily back up that story."

"You're a lifesaver," Remus complimented.

Sirius was right when he said the injuries could be explained by that story. When he got back to the dorm it was to applause and James congratulating him on a whole new level of idiocy being achieved. He even took his camera out for a picture of Remus' fading injuries for later recollection.

"Loony," James called him on their way to Charms.

"Loopy more like it," Peter grinned on his left.

"Loony loopy Lupin, trying to climb one of Hogwarts chandeliers," Sirius snickered. Remus just bore it in good spirits.

That was until he heard "Loony loopy Lupin," Repeated and then sand continuously behind him. Turning they all groaned as they spotted Peeves watching them from a beam. Taking the new song for a test drive he followed them all day singing. Then the next and the next until they always knew Peeves was coming when they heard that tune.

"I swear I'm going to hex him," Remus growled.

"When you figure out how I'm sure McGonagall will want to know," Peter told him.

Thankfully the next weekend they were on track. The others had put on hold their exploring when they heard Remus was in the hospital wing for which he felt slightly guilty for. If he was going to be disappearing every month he didn't want them to start putting things off until he came back. It was stupid and it's going to end up delaying them even further on their quest to complete the map. Even so he didn't dare voice his concerns. If he did then they would know he would be leaving every month and start noticing a pattern. Sirius had already told him they had seen through his sick mother lie. He supposed with Sirius' help he could try and convince them she was actually sick but something told him that wouldn't work for a second time. So he kept quiet and let everyone go to their respecting places in the castle to sketch out their map.

Returning to the dungeons this time Remus pointed his wand down and said the spell. It came back with six floors worth of dungeons running beneath the castle. Eager to see if the rat corpses stretched that far down Remus started in.

"That's not right," he growled. Reaching the fifth floor he had encountered a problem. That problem being there was no sixth. He looked everywhere for a stairwell or a secret passage but found nothing.

Trying his locating spell again it came back with the schematics for a floor beneath the one he was standing on. Narrowing his eyes he also noticed that this one was different to the others. It was open spaced for one and didn't seem to have the same perimeters as the others.

He searched again. And again until he was so tired he wanted nothing more than to curl up with Sirius in his bed. But he knew if he left now he would be kept up all night wondering where the entrance to the sixth floor was.

In the end he just cast a muffling charm around him and pointed his wand to the floor. One quick blast from his wand and he was falling feet first into a sewer pipe. His newly healed leg protested getting up. Parts of the caved in floor had landed heavily on top of him and the other that had fell before him wasn't exactly comfy to land on. Groaning at his stupidity Remus pulled himself to the side of the sewer pipe and helped himself stand.

Why would he have thought there was another room? It was only logical that the castle had some kind of waste disposal and it looked like Remus had found it. Not only found it but broken it. The hole he had came through was quite big and Remus feared it would get bigger.

Ignoring the smell he started forwards. Strangely there were rat corpses in here as well. He supposed the sewer was more understandable to a dungeon. But that didn't explain how a cat got in the sewers, and one must have sine most of them showed the same impact and dents as the others.

There was no way he could tell a teacher what he had done. They would ask why he was down here in the first place then tell him off for being out after hours. Not to mention damage to school property. There would be major repercussions if someone found out about this. He would have to tell James. Or Sirius. Growing up in a wizarding household they probably knew tonnes of spells to repair holes. If not then the library was the place to go. In either case Remus needed to find a way out of this sewer.

A map right now would be ideal Remus mused and scoffed at the irony. Giving one last glance up he knew he couldn't get out the way he came. Not with his leg in such a bad shape. So he went further along the pipe line.

It twisted and turned. Dipped and rose and for hours he walked through miles and miles of Hogwarts waste. There were few pipes he could climb up and he was starting to think he would never be level with the first floor of Hogwarts. Again and again he used his locator spell to see where in the castle he was.

He was near the third floor of the lower dungeons when he tripped and fell down a pipe. Instead of stopping at the next level he slid into another, and another until it was one smooth ride into a bone filled landing. Checking his leg he made sure he could walk on it before trying to figure out where he was. The locator spell did nothing. Apparently he was in a pipe line that expanded for a while then filled into a chamber. Useless since he was trying to get to the upper levels. Groaning at his luck Remus tried to think of a way out. The pipe he slid down seemed to have extended far above where Remus dropped in. If he could somehow climb up he was sure he could get to a place he could blast out of.

Plan in mind Remus looked for something to make his hands stick. There was nothing. No blood or waste which was odd since there were so many bones present. Steeling himself Remus walked further into the pipes looking for something sticky to use.

When he got back he vowed to look up sticking spells. Sticking and repair spells. Maybe invest in a broom as well. Or just stop getting into trouble altogether.

He eventually found something he didn't look too close at and coated his hands and feet in it. Sprinting as best he could back to the pipe he climbed up. It was hard and more than once he fell and had to start again but somehow he made it up. He made it as high up as he could before crawling into a smaller pipe and walking off.

He was so tired he didn't care where in the castle he was and set his wand against the wall. Coming out into daylight stunned him. He'd been away all night and not because of his monthly problem. Taking a look to where he came out he was surprised to find he was in a classroom. One he remembered to be below the girls bathroom housing Moaning Myrtle. He spared a thought to cover the hole as best he could with blackboards and other clutter in the room before trudging back to Gryffindor tower.

"Where the hell have you been?" Sirius greeted him. Eyes blazing and nostril flaring he glared Remus down before having to take a step back because of the smell.

"I fell in a sewer pipe. I couldn't get back up. It took all night to climb but I'm here now," He said and left to shower. He didn't care that he had homework due the next day. Or that his small explanation wasn't helping alleviate the other boy's curiosity. All he wanted was his bed and to sleep for the next week.


	11. Chapter 11

Despite his own reluctance to go back into the pipes James and Sirius thought it was a grand idea. As soon as he had woken up they were asking him where the hole was. When he refused to give that up they went back over what they remembered of his story and tried to piece together where Remus exploded out. He tried deterring them. His leg still wasn't feeling better and he was sure he had caught something from those pipes yet they still wouldn't listen. What was worse was that they had Peter involved. According to him the pipes probably led all the way across the school. It was better than a secret passage in Peter's eyes because there were places in the school where not even the secret passages could lead them as Remus had proved when he told them about the chamber he found. Remus begged to differ and tried to further his point in the coming days. Somehow Remus had lost all influence on them.

It all came to a head when James nudged him all the way through transfiguration. Remus only vaguely remembered pulling his wand out before he was being restrained by Sirius. McGonagall deducted points but that was all. She had known them for two years now and knew better than to give them detentions for something as trivial as fighting. Especially when she knew James had hurt a sore spot on his arm. The teacher was sympathetic to him on most days and often invited Remus for a chat if he found the other boys in his dorm to be too oppressive. Remus thought this was the teacher's way of making sure that not only the others didn't know about his condition but that they weren't corrupting him either. If only she knew Remus was the mastermind behind more than one of their pranks.

So with a stern warning and an order to make up before their next class McGonagall vanished the especially long nails and sent them off. James wasn't all that mad at him. If anything the fight had jogged his memory and he was soon telling Sirius and Peter about the dungeons they had found again. All four of them had been down there last year but they hadn't fully explored them like Remus had. James knew then that Remus had been down to the other levels of the dungeon and since he told them he fell into the pipes they concluded that one of the entrances he made was there.

"Why can't you just explore the forbidden forest like normal people?" He whined. Sirius shot him a grin and tugged him into potions.

"We're not normal people Rem," James called. Already in his seat he warded away Remus from his cauldron and towards Sirius. The Black heir was the only one that could put up with him in this lesson.

"Don't you want to know what's in that room?" Sirius asked him. "I would have thought a brain the size of yours would love the idea of breaking into somewhere no one else has for years."

"Not really." And he was telling the truth. Apart from his leg aching he remembered wanting to get out of there as fast as he could. There was something about it. The smell maybe. Or the rat corpses. Something just told him to stay out. "Besides, I can't keep up with you if you go back this weekend. I think I re-cut myself or something. My leg's been aching since I woke up."

"It's probably excitement. Or the weather. It's getting rather cold these days. I know my Grandmother's back ached whenever a storm was coming." Sirius waved off.

"Sirius, I don't want to go back in there," Remus told him.

Blue eyes softened much like they did on the nights he woke Remus up from a bad dream. He turned his back to James who was in the midst of trying to throw Peter's ink into Sirius' potion to crowd in close to him.

"If you feel like that then you don't have to come. To be honest I don't think Peter will when he sees the pipes. It's alright if you want to sit this one out," Sirius said.

That wasn't what he was trying to say. "Sirius! I don't think any of us should go. It's not safe!"

"Of course it's not safe, it's fun!" He countered.

"No. I mean, it's really not safe. If something went wrong we could die down there and no one would find us. You don't understand when I tell you that you can't get down there any other way," Remus yearned.

Sirius still didn't look to be listening. It was then that he realised there was nothing he could say to put Sirius off. James would be even worse. He really wished he hadn't opened his mouth. Last night he should have told them he tripped in the dungeons. That his leg wouldn't support him until near morning and that was why he was late back. But he hadn't, and now Remus was going to have to live with the guilt of knowing it had been him that sent Sirius Black and James Potter to their deaths

Unless he did something about it. The idea came to him at tea. They were all seated, talking merrily when Remus' gaze slipped to the wall. Remembering his promised he bid the others goodbye on the pretence of looking up new hexes in the library. Really he went to the charms section and looked up repairing spells. So long as he patched the holes up the others would be none the wiser as to where Remus fell. Their only option then would be to make one of their own and risk discovery or continue to ask Remus and he wasn't going to give up that knowledge if this worked.

He smuggled the book out near closing time and hid it in the dorm. After that it was a matter of waiting until everyone had fell asleep and slipping out of bed. He thought he was caught when he saw Sirius sitting upright when he came back from the toilet. The boy was looking out at the wall across from him in confusion and it was only when he did nothing more than that when Remus realised he was still asleep.

Breathing a sigh of relief he tip toed past Sirius' still form and over to his trunk to collect the book. Gathered he sprinted through the corridors to the abandoned classroom. The clutter was still there and the hole untouched. Thanking Merlin that a teacher hadn't noticed the vandalised wall he looked up the first repairing charm he could-

And stopped when a wand poked him in the back of the head.

He thought for a moment it was Flich. That the dreaded caretaker had seen him and followed him to not only mischief making but evidence that Remus had broken more than one school rule. But then he remembered that Filch didn't have a wand.

"Put the book down Rem."

Sirius.

"You weren't asleep." He concluded.

"I was. But then you left and I woke up. A grand little idea occurred to me when I did," he could smell Peter and James behind him also.

"You used the cloak," He guessed. "Figured that I was going to cover my tracks to stop you from killing yourselves and followed me. Genius."

"Well I am a Black," Sirius chuckled and moved his wand along with Remus to the side. "You sure do leave a mess Rem."

"I'm telling you it's a bad idea," He warned.

"Yes, but you usually tell us that," James said. "We're learnt over the past two years to tune you out when you do."

"I'm not going down there with you," Remus protested as Sirius tried moving him forwards.

It seemed the boy had forgotten he had his wand on Remus in the first place and took it away from his neck. "I told you Rem, you don't have to." He turned to James and Peter. "So who's second?"

"First you mean," James snickered as he barrelled past Sirius and into the pipes.

"Oi!" Sirius wasn't far behind him.

Only Peter loitered with him. Remus thought for a minute that Sirius was right. Peter was going to back down and take the sensible route for once. He was mistaken. "It won't be that much fun without you Remus." It seemed he only waited to try and convince Remus to join them.

"Good," He spat and left to go back to the dorm.

They weren't back the next morning and if Remus were honest with himself he didn't expect them to be. Still as he made their excuses for their first few lessons he began to grow worried. What if something had happened to them? Remus had only fallen down a section of that pipe and it was lower down than what the others will be falling into. Who's to say one of them hasn't broken their leg… or neck.

At lunch he sat alone amongst a sea of red. A few prefects, noticing the boys absence, asked about them. Remus could only say he didn't know, which was true to an extent. He didn't know where in the pipes they were. For all Remus knew they could be back in the dorm, sleeping off their adventure. That last thought appealed to him and he clung onto it through his last classes. Even so, he expected the disappointment that welled in the pit of his stomach at the sight of the empty beds.

His mind cast back to his earlier thoughts as to what might have happened to them. The dread coiled as thoughts of one of them lying broken at the bottom of the pipes until he snapped. If they were still alive they needed to come back up now. Remus couldn't keep making excuses for them and wouldn't. So, steeling himself he cast his mind around the room. There was no way he was going back down there without a plan. For starters, he needed a way to get back up. He refused to climb a second time. Which was when he spotted James' new broom. A gift from his parents for a job well done in his end of year exams. It also came with a strict warning that he was to use it for Quidditch practice only. Remus felt guilty for all of three seconds as he picked up the broom. This was an emergency. If they were all stuck down there with no way out then this overcame any warning Mr and Mrs Potter bestowed.

Making sure he had his wand and a number of sticking charms in his pocket he scrambled down to the hole in the abandoned classroom. The hole was as foreboding as he last remembered. A cold draft wafted out and stung his eyes with the scent of Hogwarts' waste fresh in his nose.

Getting a better grasp of James' broom he hopped down into the small pipe. Vaguely remembering his way he skimmed the damp water beneath him. A few more twists and he barely stopped himself from falling face first, again, into the large pipe. One deep breath turned to three before the stench had him keeping to short pants as he dropped and slid down and down Hogwarts lower levels.

It only occurred to him as he rubbed his back from the landing that James may have took them a different way. The boy hadn't been with Remus the first time down here and didn't know which way to get to the pipe. It stood to reason that they may not even be down here at all. They could be lost in the vast pipes that made up the sewer system in this school.

Still, he thought, he had to make sure and walked on. He checked the small pipes leading off first and listened sharply for any sound. Eventually it was Remus' nose that had the breakthrough.

Back at the bottom of the huge pipe Remus was taking a small break. Sitting with his back to the sewer wall he picked at the bones beneath him. Kicking out with his foot to get more comfortable he uprooted some rat bones. The move wafted a knowing scent that had sank with the hours passed.

Thanking a year of sleeping together he kicked and followed Sirius' smell along the rat corpses to a pipe he hadn't been in yet. The smell grew as Sirius had thankfully walked in the sewer water. On and on it went, left and hen left again until a small drop had Remus facing a snake head.

Gathering himself from the small shock the snake head turned out to be some sort of water feature. And there, around it was clear enough to look drinkable. There were more snake heads lining a walkway Remus gladly hopped onto.

The sound of laughter assaulted his ears soon after he walked further into the room. Hurrying forward he stopped as he spotted Sirius hanging from a nose. Not just an ordinary nose. A nose he had seen on countless chocolate frog cards and was now immortalised in stone before him. Salazar Slytherin.

"Remus!" he looked up and saw Peter waving down at him. James wasn't far behind as they both had a good grip on Sirius' legs.

"You're okay," he mumbled more to himself than to he three boys before him. He had been worrying all day that they had been butchered by Hogwarts sewers when in reality they had been playing down here with no thought as to what Remus would do when they didn't turn up for lessons.

"Is that my broom?" James called. Remus looked at the broom in his hand coming back to himself. Holding it up he nodded and saw James sigh in relief. "Thank Merlin."

"What are you doing?" he was quite confused. Sirius looked to be in the midst of falling but his giggles betrayed whatever situation he was in to not be cause for alarm.

"Sirius wanted a better look at the inside of Salazar's nose," James told him.

"More like I wanted to stick my wand up it and then tell my mother I'd done so," Sirius called back and shifted rather unnervingly about in James' hold.

"You're going to-" Remus sighed knowing it was pointless. Coming down here was pointless. They weren't in trouble, they were having fun! "I'm going back up," He told them.

"Wait!" James called and Sirius let out a little shout as the hold around him slackened slightly. Regaining his grip James looked beseechingly at Remus not to move. "Please, we don't know the way back."

"But-"

"I know," James hurried, trying to pull Sirius up now he thought Remus was leaving. "I know it looks like we're having a good time but we just happened upon this place. You were right Remus, we shouldn't have come down here. At least, not without you. As soon as we got down we couldn't get back up and then Sirius suggested looking around, only we got lost in the pipes and that's how we found this place."

"Why didn't you just use the spell we're using for the map to find your way back to the pipe?" Remus hadn't needed to since he didn't know it existed until he fell down it.

"Told you," Sirius said. Back on solid ground he was stable enough for James to give him a thumping on the back.

"No, I told you," James corrected and started looking for a way down.

"What?" Something was going on.

James slid rather dangerously down Salazar's face before he found a ledge to stand on. "I told Sirius that you would have had some way to get us out. If you were here, that is."

"No," Sirius protested as he followed James' lead. "You said 'Remus wouldn't have gotten lost down here.' I was the one that said he would have found a way out even if he were lost. You have an amazing sense of direction."

"More like I'm not stupid," He muttered and went to help James make the final leap onto the floor.

"What was that?" Remus shook his head. James narrowed his eyes before disregarding Remus' muttered comment and looking up at the stone face. "In any case we're definitely coming back here."

"No we're not," Remus negated. His nerves were fried enough from being here for five minutes. Repeatedly coming back was out of the question. There was something wrong with this room.

"I'm with James," Sirius said. "This place is far too cool to not come back to."

"Peter," Remus appealed to. "Are you honestly going to risk this again?"

The last of the group shrugged. "It's a bit Slytherin but I'm not saying it's not cool. What do you think this place was used for?" He asked changing the subject.

"Duels," James theorized as he inspected his broom.

"More like secret meetings," Sirius corrected. "There's no way this place wasn't used as some kind of occult clubhouse."

"Whatever the case I'm not coming back. It can be as cool as it likes there's something not right with it," and with that he started on his way back. Following his own trail he left in the pipe he was soon back to the rat filled pit. The other's weren't far behind. Muttering to themselves with only a few words carrying. Still, Remus knew it was about him. Especially when he heard Sirius shush James.

"So," James called attention. "How exactly are we going to do this? Am I going to fly up and- no, wait, I'm not doing that."

"For Merlin's sake Potter just take us up one at a time," Sirius sighed and positioned James himself.

"Right," He nodded. "Hold on, I'll be right back for you two."

Remus only counted three seconds before James was back with Sirius still on his broom. Knowing they figured out they didn't know which pipe led back to the cluttered classroom he waited while Sirius dutifully hopped off and let Remus take the seat.

"Where too?" James joked.

"Just fly and I'll tell you when to stop." They flew up. And up, until Remus smelled his scent waiting in one of the higher up pipes. After getting off he played a fun game with James as the boy tried to find his way back up to the right pipe. Remus decided to make it easier on him when he knocked Peter against the wall and lit his wand for Sirius coming up. All of them present he set back off into the maze of pipes and out into the classroom thankfully still abandoned.

He spared a thought to closing the hole as soon as James toddled out but, once again, Sirius was ready for him and towed him back to the dorm before he had the chance.

There, it was four showers and bed for an hour before they were up for classes.

Their trip to the secret Slytherin lair seemed to have sparked something in James and Sirius. While Remus kept out of the place like he had promised himself the other three had made it a base of sorts. Using the method Remus had suggested by using the spell for the map to guide them they had their way there and back sorted. So when they were running from Filch, Peeves or even just bored they hopped into the pipelines and down into the Slytherin lair.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Sirius asked. It had been two months since Remus had led them back up.

"Yes," he said and went back to his Herbology homework.

"We could have a picnic down there?" Sirius bargained.

"No," Remus said.

Sirius sighed and flopped on top of him. "Why don't you ever want to do anything anymore?"

That had him snapping. "I do. It's just that what I want to do and what you want to do are completely different things. If you weren't always going to that stupid room perhaps we could come to some sort of agreement."

"What do you have against the room?" Sirius implored.

"It's wrong," Remus said. "It smells funny. It feels dangerous."

"Of course it does, it was built by Slytherins," Sirius waved off before backtracking. "It smells funny? What do you mean by that?"

"There's something there," Remus tried to explain. "I don't know what but it smells dangerous."

"You can smell danger?" From his tone of voice Sirius didn't believe him.

Trying to come up with an analogy Remus explained that. "It's like with animals, when they perk up because they can sense something. They can smell something different in the air and they know it's going to hurt them. You wouldn't understand."

"No, no," Sirius protested. "So you smell danger. Something is wrong in there and you don't want to go back in case whatever it is gets you. I understand that."

"Then why are you always asking me to come with you?"

Sirius shrugged. "I just want to spend time with you. We're friends remember."

"Well I want to spend time with you too," Remus amended. "But I don't want to go to that room. You can risk your neck all you like."

"Thanks," Sirius rolled his eyes. An idea coming to him he suggested "How about we play a prank then. I'm sure your brain's rotting with all this school work. It needs a challenge to keep it healthy."

"Maybe next week," Remus agreed with a grin.

He watched as Sirius' face fell. "Why next week?"

Remus arched an eyebrow over to the window. "Forget something?"

Realisation came over Sirius as he caught sight of the near full moon. Casting a look around the room he pulled Remus in the last couple of inches between them. "Need me to make an excuse for you again?"

"If you wouldn't mind," Sirius was a better liar than he was.

Swallowing audibly he cast a look at Remus' hands. The month before he had bitten one of them quite badly and had bandages on it until last week. "Will you be alright? It's the last moon before Christmas."

"I guess," Remus answered.

"You won't, you know, catch anything from the cold?" Sirius' worry was endearing. It alarmed Remus how much the boy cared about his well being.

"I shouldn't think so," Remus didn't remember ever catching anything when he changed before. "Usually I have fur, it keeps me warm until I can find a blanket in the morning."

"Blanket," an odd glazed look had overcame Sirius' face.

"Yes, we use them to keep warm," Remus told him. Looking Sirius over he asked "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Sirius shook himself out of whatever it was that had held him.

"Thinking about your birthday?" he guessed. It was one of the topics these days that had Sirius jumping for joy. After last years downer with just presents from his parents he was looking forward to his first official Hogwarts birthday with his friends. Remus had already bribed a fifth year to get his present for Sirius weeks ago and enjoyed the planning James would rope him and Peter into late at night.

"Aren't I always," Sirius quipped. "I'm going to be a teenager," he gloated.

"And only a few months away from getting spots," Remus countered enjoying the glower that etched onto Sirius' face.

"See if I'm nice to you again Lupin," Sirius said and flounced away. Remus was just about to go back to his homework when Sirius popped his head back into the dorm. "Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"Yes," he made sure to throw something to further his point.

"Lupin has a nasty temper," Sirius said the next time he saw him.

"Tell me about it," James grinned.

Remus pretended not to hear them as he piled on another plate of food for himself.

"I heard he once locked his dorm mates in the bathroom for three hours," Peter chimed in. "All because they were looking out for him."

"That's awful Peter," James gasped.

"That's nothing," Sirius waved off. "I heard he drenched a prefect. Twice!"

The other two gasped in horror as Remus rolled his eyes. He had awful friends.

True to his word he joined Sirius in his quest to upset the school's balance.

Sneaking back from suspending every Slytherin boy's underwear from Ravenclaw tower and laughing at themselves at a job well done they rode the high that only came from breaking the rules.

When Remus stopped. After his stint in the Slytherin secret dungeon his senses had gone haywire in fright. His nose was constantly sniffing which made James chuckle often and call him a rabbit after classes. Remus would have been offended but he was more concerned with his own self preservation and making sure that whatever was down there didn't come get him. Apart from keeping himself alive Remus had never considered using his senses for troublemaking. That was until he held Sirius back and towards the way they had just came.

Just in time too since the ambush that had been waiting for them jumped out and made chase. Flich, while not athletic, sure was fast as he kept pace behind them. Mrs Norris proved to be worse as years hanging around the castle had made her partial to the secret passageways also. She used one such passage now to try and cut them off. If only she had been aware of the flaw in her plan. That being, she was a cat and they need only jump over her to get away.

The sixth floor was one they knew well, and Remus hauled Sirius up hidden staircases until they came to the entry to the Ravenclaw common room. The riddle would take too long to answer so they ran across to the wall beside it. Climbing and clinging to the stony wall they cast an unlocking spell and entered the secret passage that opened for them. It closed just as Flich caught up, screaming his dismay at his lost prey.

Catching their breath they followed the passage part way in and bunkered down for a few minutes to make sure Filch was gone.

Back in the common room Sirius couldn't help remarking that if they had went immediately left and down as soon as Filch made chase they could have hidden in the Slytherin room. Annoyed with its mention Remus countered that if they had bypassed that and ran to the willow they could have hidden in the shack. It didn't matter what they could have done and Remus wished Sirius would stop trying to force Remus into that room. The boy was obsessed and Remus was sick of trying to be dragged to a place Sirius knew he didn't want to go.

He didn't talk to Sirius the rest of the night. His earlier high had long since left as soon as Sirius opened his mouth. The next morning they spoke nothing about it. Solemn in their movements it at least made them seem innocent when the teachers asked them about the their evening.

A few nights later Remus batted the hand nudging him and snuggled further into his pillow. The hand, not deterred, returned with another and promptly shoved him. Awake and annoyed Remus made this known to his bedmate with a snarl and a shove of his own. Sirius, for whatever reason, was in too good a mood to rise to Remus' anger and proceeded to drag him out of bed. Following like a dog on a lead he was too tired to realise where Sirius was taking him. It was only when he stumbled on a bit of rubble that he saw the wall caved in and snatched his hand back. He was about to walk off when Sirius cut him off.

"Please Remus," He pleaded.

"You know-"

"Yes but I have something to show you. Please," He begged. "It won't take long."

He was tempted to say no. There was a thousand reasons why it was a bad idea but another one overrode them all. Why was Sirius so determined to get him down there? He wasn't satisfied with just himself going and never seemed to bother James and Peter about going down. Why him?

Contemplating Sirius' eagerness he relented that it wouldn't hurt to go down one more time on the promise that, after this, Sirius would leave him alone.

Getting a better grip on James' broom Sirius motioned for Remus to go first and followed shortly after with a little whoop.

Strangely nothing was different when they got to the snake pit. With Sirius ha had expected something flashy and obvious to be waiting for him. In this case he was wrong, and as the minutes passed with no surprise forthcoming he eventually posed the question to Sirius.

His friend turned an interesting shade of red and with one deep breath led Remus over to Salazar's head.

Up they went until they rested comfortably on his skull. Still nothing happened but Remus was starting to get a good idea what it was.

Sirius launched into some speech Remus only half listened to. The other half was concentrating on the deep breathing he could hear through the walls. It echoed in its stone chamber and Remus wondered how Sirius wasn't telling Remus about what was behind there. Instead the boy went on about 'needing some place where no one would interrupt them.'

Remus bit back his instinct to run as whatever it was dragged itself across the stones in sleep. It was huge whatever it was, and dangerous. One too loud snort had the wolf in Remus whimpering in fear and yelling at his human self for not getting the hell out of there. Remus decided to listen to it.

He was about to tell Sirius that his surprise was too dangerous to investigate just as the other leant in. Sirius kissed him as best as any twelve year old could. It was more like something someone would give a relative but the meaning behind it was far from platonic. Over in just a few seconds Remus felt his mind whir as thousands of different questions came to him. The most important one was 'why'?

When he finally got his lips to cooperate he asked just that and watched Sirius blush and mumble something about needing practice. Remus let him have the lie. Right now there was more important things to pay attention too. Namely what was behind Salazar's head.

Sharing his findings with Sirius he knew the boy had no knowledge of the creature as his eyes widened in curiosity before flickering back to Remus in fright.

"We need to get out of here."

It was the smartest thing he'd ever heard come from Sirius' mouth.

Back at the dorm Sirius even warded James and Peter from going back there. Naturally this was met with some resistance and a whole lot of glaring sent Remus' way.

"Just because Remus doesn't want to do something Sirius-"

"It's not about that!" He snapped.

"Of course it's about that," James countered. "You always do what he says. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later even as I hoped you would grow a spine and say no for once."

"This isn't about Remus," Sirius insisted.

"Oh really?" James snarled. "Then why don't you want to go back? What's so bad about that place?"

"There's something there James. Something big and dangerous and Remus is scared-"

"See!" James gloated. To Peter "Told you it was about Remus."

"That's not fair," Sirius argued. "So what if it's about Remus? He's our friend. We should listen to what he says."

"And I have," James said. "I've not been the one forcing him to go back down have I? And so what if Remus is scared? It didn't matter this morning and I don't see why it should matter now. You're your own person Sirius."

"You don't understand," Sirius was frustrated enough that he messed up his hair until it was sticking out almost as badly as James'.

"Then make me," James insisted.

Sirius looked like he was going to. Until he closed his mouth and stormed to the bathroom. With a definitive slam the other occupants of the room turned their attention to Remus.

"We never forced you to go back down," Peter pointed out.

"I never said you did." Sighing he told them. "Sirius was right about there being something down there. Even if you don't listen to us you should at least be careful."

James just scoffed and fell back onto his bed. "You know, if you wanted to ward us off from going down there you should have come up with something better than a monster."

"I didn't make it up."

"Sure you didn't. Only, if it were a monster, Sirius would be down there with us. Unlike you, he has a backbone."

Remus chose to ignore that last comment in favour of getting back into bed. He felt Sirius slip in once the candles had been blown out again and turned to see the other boy frowning at him.

"What made you change your mind?" Remus asked.

"You," Sirius shrugged and fiddled with the edge of the bed sheet. "I thought you were just saying it before, about your instincts and stuff. But when we were down there... you're the scariest thing alive one night a month, if there's something down there that has you scared I don't want to know what it is."

"Thanks," They shared a small smile in the shadows.


	12. Chapter 12

Sirius' birthday was odd to say the least.

Ever since declaring their silent war against Remus for being the 'party pooper' he had been afraid they would ruin their other friends birthday. It wasn't like Sirius was all chummy with them these days either. True to his word, he kept out of the Slytherin pit, warding James and Peter away whenever one of them so much as mentioned it out loud.

Yesterday, Remus could have sworn James went for his wand. They were in the middle of dinner, the four of them sitting with their comrades on opposite sides of the table. Sirius was playfully knocking his leg against Remus, trying to see if he could knock the custard out of his hands and over to the first year sitting next to him. He wasn't successful. He got a close knock in, the custard teetering on the edge of the bronze rim, before stopping completely, like a hound with a scent, and focusing on James. He had hissed something to Peter, that something being about visiting the secret room for some planning time. The words seemed to come out of Sirius second nature now, warning them away from it, threatening to tell on them. It was that last one that saw James going for his pocket, the one he kept his wand in. It took a deep breath and a hissed warning before Remus was sure James wasn't going to hex them.

That wasn't what was really bothering him. A hex he could easily undo with a counter. It was the principle of friend turning against friend. He feared this would actually be their undoing. That, after one year of magnificent friendship, they were all going to throw it away over some stupid room housing a stupid monster.

He woke up on the Saturday of Sirius' birthday in a sour mood. He had spent all night thinking of ways to make it special for the boy, like he and James had for him. But James was the mastermind of celebration. He was the one who was shared Sirius' humour, and if he were talking to Remus, he knew they would have made something spectacular happen for Sirius waking up.

As it was, Remus pried his eyes open to the light of any other day. The sun was out at least, and a thin sheen of snow falling from the sky outside. Sirius was lying half on top of him, his elbow poking uncomfortably into his stomach. It took some shifting to get out before Sirius woke. Running towards his own trunk he prised it open as quietly as he could, grabbing his present out and readying himself to jump on Sirius.

Only to be beat to it.

James, in the time it had taken Remus to turn back around, had sprang from his own curtains, catapulting himself onto the sleeping boy and screaming at the top of his voice his congratulations.

'Get up! You have presents.'

Sirius swatted at him, still half asleep and mumbling something about a birds next. James took the offending hand and used it to slap Sirius until he was sitting up and trying to hit James for real.

When the wrestling eventually ended in sniggers and giggles, the two boys crawled to the bottom of the bed, Sirius holding his hands out expectantly for his presents. James yelled at Peter to get up as he handed over his present first, a brightly wrapped package with snitches buzzing around it. A Quidditch top was inside, apparently Sirius' favourite team from the way he bolted from the bed, stripped and posed with the new item on.

It took a lot of persuading before Sirius sat still for his other presents, Peter handing over his latest steal of sweets and a new scarf clad in Gryffindor's colours.

'Since your other one got ripped.' It seemed a lot of their clothing got ripped these days. Stray spells and forgotten potions often ended up in one or more of their clothes holey and entirely unusable. The latest had been Sirius' scarf, the one thing he had from first year that his parents hadn't managed to burn as soon as he got home. Remus still didn't know how he managed that feat.

'Greatly appreciated Peter.'

Remus handed over his when Sirius demanded. He hadn't gotten the boy anything special, not like the Quidditch top. All he knew was that he wanted to get Sirius something he would enjoy, and so had asked a fifth year about wizard toys. It had took some bartering, and all the allowance he had, to get the fifth year to order the stuffed werewolf.

'It howls on full moons,' Remus told him, taking the fluffy creature and showing him the other features it had. It looked kind of like Remus' wolf, the same face and claws. It was only on the body that there was something distinctly werewolf like. Instead of on fours, it was on it's hind legs, the front paws curled in front like it was constantly waiting for a treat. The body was longer, but that was where the wolf halted its monstrous appearance- it was a kids toy after all.

He had originally thought to get Sirius a dragon like the one James mentioned he had. He thought Sirius would like a little thing floating around and puffing smoke. But then he remembered his own toy, and the fact he knew Remus' secret. It was both thrilling and dangerous to pull a stunt like this in front of his two other friends, he half hoped they would think back on their accusations of last year and think Remus was just being spiteful. Even so, he showed Sirius the eyes, and how they changed colour from black to gold. He showed him how he could tell how close the full moon was by the way it growled. The louder it got and more close to a howl the closer the moon.

Throughout it all Sirius was frowning, looking between Remus and the werewolf like it was some offence.

'Do you not like it?'

Sirius squinted at him, his grey eyes glowing slightly in the morning light. 'I guess. It just seems in poor taste I suppose.'

James was looking uncomfortable too, fidgeting with his fingers and avoiding Remus' gaze. 'Is this about last year Rem? I know you were upset but-'

'No! It's a joke. It's funny. I thought you might like it.' It seemed he was wrong. Sirius didn't get the funny side of a werewolf giving a werewolf for a present.

'You think so?' Sirius looked like he was genuinely asking for permission.

'Of course.'

He got a small smile before the matter was dropped and moved on to a different topic. Namely, what they were going to do today. It was like nothing had ever gone wrong. Like they weren't in the midst of a feud.

They went down to the kitchens, completely forgetting about the breakfast in the great hall, on Sirius' request. The house elves, having been briefed by probably all of them about today, were poised from the moment they stepped in. Sirius had four chocolate monstrosities before James dragged him over to the towering cake taking up half the room.

'Because a Black can have nothing short of extravagant,' James sniggered, elbowing Sirius until they were both stuffing their faces through laughter.

Remus was most aghast when he learned the cake was chocolate. They were treating it like it was regular sponge, coining a sort of food fight and smushing each others faces with icing. Chocolate was not meant to be treated this way. So he tried his best, as was his solemn duty as a chocolate lover, to save the poor cake from the menacing boys. Namely by putting it in his stomach before the others could get their paws on it.

They dragged him off after his seventh piece, barely a dent in the massive structure really, on the wish that they spend the day playing in the snow outside.

It was fun. Together, Remus and Peter managed to stuff a handful of snow down James' pants. Sirius built an igloo that was swiftly destroyed when James stumbled over it in his attempt to get the snow out. They all ended up making snow angels, using their wands to change the shape into griffins and devils when they got up.

When they could barely feel their hands, and in James' case his nether regions, Sirius finally said they could go in. They holed themselves up in the dorm, all of them shivering in their blankets to get warm as Peter grabbed his chess set out.

'This was nice,' Sirius said. It was dark outside, late. They had all changed into their pyjama's ages ago. Sirius, still adamant that he was going to beat Peter today, hadn't left the chessboard since it had been taken out, despite James and Remus offering to do something else or something more fun because it was his birthday.

Such a simple day of playing in the snow and eating until they were full seemed a bit anticlimactic for a boy such as Sirius. Remus had prepared more than several back up plans in case they were going to do something illegal. He was sure James had too by the way he kept suggesting this or that to do. But no, Sirius stayed at his chess game and cuddled up with Romulus when he next left for the bathroom.

'We didn't do much,' James sulked. He had retreated to his own side of the room, lavishing attention on his Quidditch magazines.

Sirius shrugged, the whole move looking relaxed, but Remus could read the tension in his shoulders. There as a slight blush colouring his pale skin, telling Remus more than Sirius probably wanted to say with that move.

He remembered last year when Sirius' birthday passed. He had woken, opened his presents and went to class like any other day. There was no drawing attention to himself, he didn't demand James do this or that, which he probably could have at least for that boy last year.

He remembered there being a long letter attached to one of the presents, Sirius having overlooked it that morning in his haste to rip his presents apart. Remus wondered if birthdays were even a happy occasion in the Black household. Whether it was just another excuse to show off the heir, the former pride and joy of the Black house. It must have been harder than they all knew last year for Sirius on his birthday. What little he probably had was gone in that letter. Making him even more sombre before he was forced to go home for Christmas.

The blush faded, Remus keeping his mouth shut. This was Sirius' day. If he wanted to have fun playing chess, Remus wasn't going to make him uncomfortable. So he went back to his book, or pretended to go back to it, and made suggestions over Peter's head how Sirius could beat him.

The truce didn't last. Almost as soon as the sun came up the next day things were back to normal. Or as normal as they could be in the midst of a war.

James and Peter were up before them, a surprising thing considering it was a Sunday and usually they liked to be the last out of bed. Breakfast was a quiet affair, James and Peter joking back and forth on their side, while Remus and Sirius watched on wondering where they fit in this picture.

As soon as they were finished eating the two of them were gone, telling them pointedly about their plans in the Slytherin room.

'Do you think they know they're being annoying?' Sirius asked.

The two of them were trailing along the courtyard, kicking up the snow that drifted through the arches. Their plan had been to try and sneak into the prefects bathroom, Sirius having hidden out and got the password from a fifth year the other day. They were going to change the bubble bath there into something less nice smelling. A fun day for all. Especially because Remus knew one of Sirius' cousins were going there later today.

'Yes.'

Sirius huffed, the whole move sending his body slumping, almost trailing along the floor unlike his usual glide. 'When will they just give up? I mean, seriously, this whole thing is ridiculous. They're being childish, and I know there's not that much to do down there so it's not like they've having that great a time. Truthfully, when you've climbed Salazar's head, there's not much else to keep you occupied, I know.'

'Yeah, well, until we know how to scare them away, we're going to have to accept our group being split.'

Sirius groaned, sliding even closer to the ground as he did so. Remus was honestly wondering how he was still walking.

Instantly, he popped up, his whole body looking like it had been electrified with how rigid it was. The moment he relaxed he was on Remus, jumping like a puppy and dragging him to the nearest empty classroom.

'That's it, that's it!' He repeated, letting Remus go to pace in front of him. He didn't catch much of what was said, mostly because Sirius was garbling or mumbling words as they fought their way out of his mouth. When Sirius finally regained the ability to think it was with a look he only got when conspiring with James. 'Don't you get it Remus? It's perfect.'

'What's perfect? Sirius, I can barely understand you on a good day. Remember, enunciate.'

'You know, for a werewolf, you're awfully concerned with people's speech. And my plan is what's perfect Lupin. I think I know a way to get James and Peter back. Or, you do since it was your idea.'

Remus thought back to their walk here. He didn't remember coming up with a plan of any kind. Sirius however, was adamant in Remus' genius, lavishing him in praise before revealing his grand idea.

He had to admit it was ingenious. Up until the part where Sirius wanted Remus to participate. 'So then you wolf out.'

'Wolf out? What do you mean wolf out?'

'You know-' Sirius curled his hands close to his chest, throwing his head back in a silent howl. 'Wolf out.'

'You want me to change?'

Sirius' excitement fell, probably catching on to Remus' horror since he laughed, telling him he was kidding and changed the whole plan entirely. They used the chalk board to make their plan more official, actually thinking this out properly. He supposed the prefect bathroom could wait.

The first part of their plan was easy to implement. Well, sort of easy.

With James and Peter avoiding them, they didn't have to worry about getting caught on that front. It was easy to sneak out. The problem was avoiding Filch on their way to abandoned classroom. He seemed to always know where they were making mischief. Remus suspected Mrs Norris was secretly an animagus, or at least had some feline way to communicate. In any case, he was sure the cat spied on them during the day and fed the information back to Filch for his nightly rounds. It sure would explain a lot.

Like how they had to wait a whole hour before he decided to leave the classroom doorway and actually patrol. Remus kept an eye out for Mrs Norris as they scuttled into the classroom.

The Slytherin room was just as unnerving as the last time he was down. The heads of so many snakes glaring down at him, with the bust of Salazar at the front, keeping something hidden behind that grim exterior. It was all chilling, telling him to turn back. He almost did too, had Sirius not been adamant this was the last time. If they did this, everything could go back to normal. They could forget this place exists.

'We're going to get in so much trouble,' Remus said, needing to say anything to help cope with this feeling.

'We always get in trouble Remus. At least this time it's for a purpose.'

'I know.' He pulled his sleeves over his hands. 'It's just, I miss so much school work as it is. And, the full moon is in four days. More missed work.'

'Detail orientated werewolf.' Sirius scoffed.

'Could you stop!'

He didn't mean to snap, really. But his nerves were fried and Sirius wasn't helping it by being so calm.

'Stop what?'

'That-' It was harder than he thought to force the words out. 'Calling me that. That's twice today you've called me- called me a werewolf.'

Sirius stopped ahead. 'I didn't realize.'

'Well I did.'

Sirius backtracked, stopping in front of him. 'Remus, you know I won't tell anyone.'

'Yeah.'

'That didn't sound very convincing.' He grabbed Remus' shoulders, frowning when his own hands started shaking with the tremors. 'Remus. I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm sorry if I've been insensitive, or something. It's just, I've never really had a werewolf friend before. I don't know what I can and can't do in this situation. But believe me when I say: I can keep a secret.'

'I know.' Which he did. He knew Sirius could keep bruises and lies from his friends. He knew he probably hid much worse when he went home. The friends he made, how happy he was in Gryffindor. Remus knew all this. It was just the room making him edgy. 'I'm sorry. It's not you. Besides, I was the one who gave you a stuffed werewolf for your birthday.'

'Which I still don't get.'

The tension gone, the two of them ventured to their preparations. He kept note of the hand on his arm, not too tight, but not slack either. Just letting him know he wasn't alone down here, with that thing breathing behind that grim marble mouth.

'It was a joke.'

One he tried to explain as they finished and hid behind one of the snakes.

It was a long day. One which Remus filled with more mindless chatter than Sirius. He complained about his work, speculating what they might be learning. He tried to come up with his own classes from the things he knew. Quizzing Sirius until the boy snapped on how to spot this or that. How to use this spell, what would he use this spell for. He thought Sirius was quite justified come lunch to start an impromptu duelling session. Well, he thought it was a duelling session, he was 99% sure Sirius had just decided to hex him and he was lucky to shield it in time.

Hunger set in after a while. They hadn't had breakfast, or lunch, and Remus was sure they were missing dinner by the time they heard footsteps and manic laughter.

Remus almost collapsed on top of Sirius as the boy pulled him behind their hidey snake, James coming into view soon after.

'- of them! They're probably plotting something Peter.' James stalked over to Salazar's head. 'They're gonna block this place off. Or maybe they're pulling off some kind of prank. It would be just like Sirius. Spiting us by doing something really cool.'

Sirius rolled his eyes next to him. Remus just glared back, it wasn't like James was wrong.

James continued to sprout off more theories, Peter chiming in with comments Remus was sure he wouldn't say to their faces. He had to physically restrain Sirius when one comment had him almost attacking Peter.

'He's just upset,' Remus breathed, trying to calm Sirius down. 'We have a plan.'

They waited a while, letting James and Peter become more comfortable. They also waited until James and Peter were in position. That position being as close to Salazar's head as they could get them.

It worked like a trip wire. As soon as they got close to the mouth, James 'tripped' and landed heavily on the marble. The noise echoed around the room.

That, and James' 'Oops.'

Remus was honestly surprised that monster was still asleep with all the noise they had probably made since finding this place.

As the echo died down, Sirius started the next step of spells. The first to shake the stone. Really more of a blast to the rocks that made the floor tremble slightly, but with Sirius' anger it was like an earthquake had struck them. Remus had to cling to the rock just to stop the two of them from falling out of their spot.

'Nice,' Remus hissed. This was meant to be a subtle plan. If they didn't do everything else perfectly the other two were bound to know something was up.

He performed the next spell, the one that made the noise. He more or less dragged his wand across the ground, the sparks creating a sort of rumbling hiss. They had found the spell earlier of how to throw the noise around the room. To James and Peter it sounded like it came from behind the marble.

'Very funny Sirius!' Echoed around the room. Remus didn't have to hear the tremors in his voice, he could practically taste the fear. So he did it again, this time nudging Sirius to move the noise around so it sounded like something was moving behind the rock. 'You think you can scare me Black? I used to g-'

He did it again, having Sirius knock the floor as the noise sounded close to the marble again.

'We should leave.' Peter, barely heard over the loud noises the two of them were making.

'No. This is just Sirius. I told you they were up to something.' James insisted, but the edge of uncertainty kept Remus at it.

He waited until that stench of fear reached at peak, James starting to look around for the two of them, before implementing the last of Sirius' plan. He made the noise, had Sirius shake the earth, and lastly sent a solid boom straight to the middle of the mouth. The stone crumbled slightly, James crying out as fear finally won. Remus sent one more bust just in case, as Sirius watched the other two flee out of the room.

'Keep it up,' Sirius hissed. 'If they think it's us they might be waiting to see if we come out with them.'

So they did. It was the longest spellwork they had ever done. Quite the workout. By the time Sirius said they could stop Remus was sweating from exhaustion and hunger, wanting nothing more than to curl up in the kitchens with a piece of cake.

'Can we go?'

'Yeah,' Sirius agreed. 'But we can't go out the same way they did.'

'Figured.'

They had to take the confusing way out. The way through the pipes and into the dungeons. Which was more than difficult since neither of them had a broom, and had to rely on sticking charms. It was a smelly, messy affair. One which had Sirius giving up and sitting down more times than Remus could count.

'You're worse than me after a full moon. Get up Black.' He had given up on being nice four stops ago. Sirius had lost the right to his first name the moment he started outwardly wailing.

When they finally got to, Remus thought, the first floor of the castle, he had given up trying to find an exit. He would make an exit. It would help them avoid suspicion in any case. Especially if James was smart enough to guard both entrances.

It took time, and distractions to blow out the wall, and make sure no one found them as Remus patched it up. When they were finished they had the hard task of navigating the castle without James and Peter finding them. An easy feat had they not been filthy and covered in dust from the blown out wall.

They were almost stopped by three professors, only narrowly avoided because the throng of students heading back to their common rooms swallowed them up.

They ended up hiding out in the prefects bathroom until dark, actually doing their plan of swapping out the bubble bath and switching it with other things. It took them longer than they thought it would, especially because Sirius insisted beforehand to actually use the prefects bathroom for its original purpose.

When they got back to the common room they bumped into James. He was wide eyed, dishevelled, his hair in even more disarray than usual. His cloak was in one hand, and Peter trailing behind him. It seemed Sirius had been right about them waiting for them.

It was a standoff. James looking both of them over for any evidence of where they might have been. Remus could tell even before he opened his mouth that the two of them were in the clear. The fear had taken hold, no hint of suspicion as James asked what they had spent their day doing.

No mention of the Slytherin room popped up over the next few days. James actually talked to them over breakfast the next morning, Peter reluctantly following suit until it was like nothing had ever changed.

It was the night before the full moon when James finally brought up the room. A simple, 'You were right,' being the only apology they were going to get.

Remus took it, Sirius too. They knew how hard it would have been for James to admit he was wrong after so long believing he was right. Even if it was a lie. Or a half lie. Or not really a lie at all since there really was a monster down there.

Regardless, they had their friends back, and all of them went to block off the room together. James even struck the place off their map, making them swear they wouldn't tell anyone where it was. As far as they were concerned there was nothing but the dungeons below Hogwarts.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in a weekend, I'm proud I've actually picked this story back up.  
> Hope you guys like it. Don't be afraid to tell me if you do/ don't. Criticism is the key to good writing after all.

It was bliss the next month. Remus didn't think anything could go wrong. Lessons died down as the holidays drew near. The only real spellwork the four of them did was when Remus got them out of bed at the weekends for some duelling practice, and he meant duelling.

He supposed he had a bit leftover anger from James and Peter completely ignoring them. He was studying all week, holing himself in the library and sneaking books back to their dorm for extra reading. He absorbed as much as he could, and he honestly meant to teach the others. But when Saturday came, he taught them one spell, made sure they had the hang of it, before clearing the beds away to make a space. James was floored in seconds. Peter less than that. Sirius was smart enough to hide behind the bed barricade and keep out of Remus' firing line.

After that first weekend, James bucked up. He seemed to get that there was something to resolve, and more often than not he heard James get up in the middle of the night for some extra reading too.

'You're not getting the best of me this weekend Lupin.'

They were walking to Transfiguration, another long lesson of nothing ahead of them. He had heard James last night whoop as he poured over one of the stolen books. He was sure the boy had something up his sleeve. What remained to be seen.

'I hope you're right Potter. Otherwise we'll have to come up with a good lie to tell Pomphrey. I think she's getting suspicious.'

He heard a snort to his left. Sirius. Nothing else was said however, not from him. Remus noticed it more as the week went on. Jokes were passed around, James getting more and more smug the closer the weekend got. Peter was the same, so it wasn't like there was a secret being kept from him. He was still quiet, following them along and throwing in quips here and there. But Sirius, he was different. Quiet. Unnervingly so.

'Okay, what's wrong?' He cornered Sirius that Friday.

James was off, making last minute plans for their duel tomorrow. Peter in tow as he usually was these days. He had dragged Sirius over to the edge of the forbidden forest, enjoying the snow before they were confined to the castle at curfew.

Sirius didn't even try to deny something was off, kicking the snow under his feet with an almost vicious air. 'I can't stay for Christmas. Apparently some long lost uncle of mine is coming to visit and mum wants the whole family there. She just wants to show off, she always does.'

'You could always just put your name on the list and tell her when you don't come home.' He knew it was a stupid idea. From the sounds and brief glimpse of the Blacks he had seen, he didn't think they were one to enjoy their son's rebelliousness. Doing something like that would probably make it worse come summer.

'You're going to have all this fun,' Sirius huffed, kicking up more snow.

'Not really. Last year was kind of boring.' He remembered the long days of nothing to do. It was a relief when classes started again, he had things to research. Friends to talk to. He hadn't realized before how lonely it was with just himself for company.

'Yeah, but this year you'll have James and Peter. While I just have Regulus. Do you know how dull he is? He doesn't have a mind of his own. I swear, the last conversation I had with him it was like talking with my mother.'

'That's... I'm sorry.'

'You're sorry? I'm the one who's going to miss the Christmas full moon. You're going to have to come up with a good lie. Last time they were starting to get suspicious again. I think it's because their little room's gone. With nothing else to occupy them- well, Peter- they're starting to think about it again.'

'That's not good.'

Beyond not good. Last time Peter had been suspicious he had laced everything with silver. It had taken Polyjuice and a hell of a lot of good acting to throw them off his scent. Even with all that, it wouldn't take much for Peter to try again. He wasn't stupid. Not like Sirius thought he was anyway. Remus almost thought it was an act, or a defence mechanism. Some way to make himself less of a target to the other more outspoken people in the world.

Someone with enough craft like that would be able to think around full moons. Or at least come up with some other wacky conspiracy that would probably endanger Remus. At the best expel him. At the worse, tell his secret in front of everyone and let them fill letter upon letter about he shouldn't exist.

'Really not good. I'd suggest Polyjuice again. Or come up with some kind of letter- accident. Anything that would put you out of suspicion but also out of the castle. Never thought I'd say this, but I almost wish James didn't have that stupid cloak.'

'Getting found out. Dinner with the Black family. I don't know which of us has it worse this Christmas.'

'And think, we're only in second year.'

Remus laughed, Sirius proposing they cause the most chaos before he goes as an early Christmas present to him. Something he would usually be against. But for Sirius, he could make an exception.

They pulled pranks on as many people as they could. Hanging Nifflers on the Christmas trees Hagrid brought in. Dinner that day was hilarious to say the least, girls holding onto their jewellery for dear life. They broke out the pixies from the Defence Classroom and set them free in the Herbology greenhouses. Sirius' pride was the Polyjuice trick they pulled at the end of term. It had been inspired by their talk, Sirius proposing to James they go around looking like Dumbledore for the day.

It had been an experience. James decided to use his day as Dumbledore to practice his flirting skills, namely on McGonagall. Their professor had not been amused when she realized what was going on. Thankfully she thought their creativeness a sort of genius and only deducted five points from each of them. Not to mention James continued to tell them that for an instant he was sure McGonagall flirted back with him.

Peter had used his day as Dumbledore to invade the professor's classrooms and ask them about not only his mark, but their future tests and what those answers to those tests would be. He got found out by McGonagall too. Mostly because he chose to bother her at a time when James was in the same room as her. Not a smart decision.

Sirius used his day as Dumbledore to scare the living daylights out of his cousins. He would loiter outside their classrooms, reprimanding them and giving them detentions for made up things. Out of all of them he was the longest to not get caught. The only reason he did was due to all those Slytherins turning up to detention and McGonagall wondering why they were there.

Remus used his day to see how many teachers knew about him. He dropped hints here and there, and with the level of sympathy or lack of knowledge they gave him he found out that four of them knew what he was. Four. He felt slightly sick at that. He could only thank that it was the long term staff that knew. McGonagall being one of those that knew, and having caught two of the four of them already, had merely said, 'Get back to your class Lupin,' before going back to her own work.

When the time came for the train to leave Hogsmeade, Sirius was in higher spirits, laughing with James as they recounted their tales. They took him all the way to the front doors, having not found a way to sneak into Hogsmeade yet.

'Don't have too much fun,' Sirius joked as he picked up his trunk. Remus could read the seriousness behind it. He could tell Sirius didn't want them forgetting him. Or do something amazing without him. Really he just didn't want to leave them. Which was unfortunate because Remus had been looking forward to their first Christmas together too.

'We won't.' James promised, pulling Sirius in for a hug before pushing him out the door. 'Now get lost before your Dad comes for you.'

'My dad? It's my mum you have to worry about.'

The first few days were okay. James and Peter hadn't spent time with this few people around Hogwarts and needed some time to adjust. When they did, James went insane.

He refused to sleep in his dorm. Instead, he grabbed his blankets and set up anywhere and everywhere he wanted. Remus stumbled upon him having a sleepover in the kitchens one night.

He decided to befriend Peeves. Which took some time. James came back to clean up more times than he actually made attempts.

The whole castle knew when he had finally cemented that relationship. One moment they were in the middle of breakfast, the next it was raining dungbombs from the ceiling. James told them later Peeves sometimes stole from students so he could prank others. Something he knew the boy would exploit to the fullest.

Throughout it all Remus tried to keep his head down. Tried being the operative word. But when James was one of the only two people left to talk to in the castle, and Peter wasn't so keen on looking up spells all day, he had little choice but to heed to James' call.

At least until the full moon.

It was on boxing day. The worst day to have a full moon if you asked Remus. He had wanted to spend the day going over the new copy of hex's Sirius had got him for Christmas _'Because you need one to scribble in_ ,' had been in his note.

Instead, as soon as the sun was up he was dragging Peter from bed and James from his hidey hole and actually coming up with mischief they could get into. He dared and dared and dared his friends to do this or that. The best thing about it being that they had no regards to their own safety- or in Peter's case not wanting to look weak in front of James and Remus. Which meant that whatever he told them to do, they did.

Streak through the school? James was already to his boxers before he finished speaking. Take a nice stroll over the greenhouse roof? They were dancing and sliding over the slippery glass for a good half hour. Change the potions desks for transfiguration. Steal the crystal balls and hang them from the Hogwarts Christmas trees. Break the Nifflers out again and set them loose in the Slytheirn common room. They did it all until they were hiding out in the second floor bathrooms, the full moon two hours away.

'You're insane Lupin.' James was panting just as hard as he was. Peter hunched over a toilet a few meters away as the stress of the day finally caught up with him.

'You already knew that.'

'True.'

James was nearly asleep, all the adrenaline gone and leaving him slumped half lidded against the bathroom wall. He supposed it was a good thing he gave in to his impulsive side today. It meant that when he said he was going to see what else he could get away with James just told him to go ahead, mentioning something about taking Peter to the kitchens before passing out somewhere.

Perfect. He had wore his friends out so much they didn't even care where he was going. He would bet they would be glad to see the back of him right now. No doubt they would try and avoid him tomorrow too, just in case he tried another day like today. That meant a whole day of recovery without suspicion.

He went to the shack that night with a spring in his step. From the worry Sirius had set in he had been prepared for a much harder full moon than this.

He supposed he should have kept that thought until after he transformed however.

When he woke he didn't know what was wrong with him. All he did know was that he hurt. Everywhere.

When he finally got his eyes open through the sticky grain keeping them closed he was rewarded with heaps of bandages. They were littered all up his arms, his legs, he could feel them wrapped like a collar around his neck. The worst was when he grew more aware of his wounds. He could feel the scratches and bites underneath the white planes. They stung like a symphony whenever he moved, and shocked him into stillness when he felt his nose ache with the familiar pangs.

He couldn't move for a while. Both because Madame Pomphrey forbade it, and also because he just physically couldn't. He was left to whimper his pain away, the noise putting him in more of a state with how canine it sounded.

This was his time, not the wolfs. But the whines still came, growing in pitch until Pomphrey came over, her soothing hands full of pity as she shoved a potion down his throat.

'I read a study,' She told him, straightening his sheets around him. 'About werewolves. It was full of biased prejudice. But there were some interesting points in it. Namely about the connection between your human and other self. The essay said that the closer to the full moon the more you two interlink. It might not be true, but I remember you telling me about those bad dreams you had, and how you were worse off that month because of it. I'm not saying this to patronize you Remus, you know better than anyone about this kind of thing. What I am saying is that maybe you should try and think about this essay, see if it's true. Maybe try and calm down before a full moon.'

'I was calm this month,' He choked, his voice small in the room, having trouble breaking through the pants and noises his throat forced out.

Madame Pomphrey sighed, patting his hand gently. 'Like I said, you know this better than I do. And certainly better than whoever wrote that essay. It was just something I thought I should tell you.'

He thought about what she said when she left him again. It was the only thing he could do to keep his mind off the other thing he wasn't going to think about yet. He said he was calm, but that wasn't strictly true. He was wound up. Both from the stress of the full moon, keeping his secret safe and being friends with James. Also with excitement and relief that he had gotten away with it for another month.

She had been right when she said he was worse when he had those nightmares. Maybe that essay was on to something. But it wasn't like he could actually calm down before a full moon. He couldn't. It was impossible. He was turning into a hairy four legged creature after all. If that wasn't bad enough he had all that energy. He was constantly wired up the whole day before a full moon. He couldn't calm down.

He dozed off for a while considering things he could do to calm himself down next month, just in case it was true.

He hoped this was all some horrible dream. Truthfully he wished his life was some horrible dream- no one should be this unlucky. But when he woke he was still in pain. His cuts were slightly better, the potion Pomphrey gave him doing its job to numb the sting. Yet Remus could still feel his nose aching, could feel every inch of flesh that had been carved out of his face.

He heard himself whimpering again the longer he thought about his face. There was no way he could hide this. Always, always he had thought the wolf would never touch it. The creature had avoided it all these years, never once leaving so much as a scratch on above his neck. He thought they understood each other. Thought the wolf knew that if it hurt there the possibility of a more fatal wound was adamant.

It took a total of two days before Pomphrey let him leave.

He was shrugging on his jumper the first time he caught sight of the gauze on his nose. It made him heave into a bedpan.

The walk up to the dorm was longer than usual. Firstly because of his wounds. Despite getting the all clear, he wasn't actually healed. He was limping pretty badly from where the wolf went for his leg, again. The stairs were particularly difficult to walk up because of this problem. The next was the fact he was trying to avoid any reflective surface possible. Denial was his friend right now. It helped stop the constant mantra of _they're going to know, they're going to know_ , that echoed at the corners of his mind.

When he finally got to the heavy wooden door that housed him and his friends he stood outside for a while. His hand had been on the knob for five minutes before he remembered how to turn it. Five more as he got the courage to actually do so. As it opened, he couldn't help the sigh of relief that came at the place empty. The whole room was a mess, clothes strewn everywhere and things Remus would like to think of as botched potions and nothing else drooping here and there. But no James. No Peter.

Remus really hadn't been ready to face them.

Nor would he be ready.

It was a cowardly move. One he felt justified in doing only for the sole purpose that this was his Christmas holiday too. He hadn't the strength to keep up with James' schemes, or the motive to venture down to the kitchens every time he was hungry. All he really wanted to do was sleep. So that's what he did. He changed, drew the curtains and slept.

The trouble was with giving in to his fear that it was hard to get rid of it afterwards. Once Remus had made his safe haven he didn't want to leave. Whenever James and Peter tried to pry him out, or so much as touch one of his curtains he sent a spell at them. He excused it as being unwell. That was met with Peter trying to take him to the hospital wing. Which resulted in Peter going to the hospital wing alone when Remus hexed him bright green for so much as trying to get him to move. James tried coaxing him out for dinner, saying that the New Years feast would be on soon, and the house elves needed to warm up somehow. Much like Peter, he ended up going to the kitchens alone, grumbling about sour friends and wanting Sirius back.

He lost track of days. Only venturing outside his curtains when he was sure both boys were gone. Which was why he was surprised when he heard a familiar barking laugh and the clatter of a trunk being thrown down.

'- and then Uncle Alphard told mum to stuff it. I think she's considering blasting him.' That was definitely Sirius, his voice moving about the room as more footsteps circled around their beds.

'Brilliant.' James laughed. 'Sounds like you had more fun than us.'

A snort. 'Not likely. Apart from that the whole holiday was a bore. My presents were awful, my cousins more so. Mother was particularly mean when she wasn't fighting with my dad and it was just... not Hogwarts.' There was silence in the room save for shuffling as Sirius shucked out of his travelling robes. Remus half wanted to peak out from his curtains, see if Sirius' mother being 'mean' had extended to rather unconventional punishments again. But if he went outside then... 'So what have you been up to? Bet it's been a right laugh.'

'Yeah it was.' The grin James was sporting could be felt from a mile off. Remus didn't even need to see him to know he was ecstatic right now as he regaled their tales. 'He was bloody mental, had us doing all sorts, right Peter?'

'I still have a bruise from where I slipped on the greenhouses.'

Sirius barked out another laugh, the springs creaking as he jumped on his bed.

'Of course that was before he decided to be a sourpuss,' He didn't need the added volume, he could hear James just fine. 'Honestly Sirius, one moment he's all smiles and the next he goes missing for like three days and holes himself up in there. He's set a new record for being pissy that's for sure.'

'He turned me green,' Peter piped in.

The springs creaked again, Sirius' shadow becoming clear behind Remus' curtain. 'He probably just missed me. You know out of all of us he's the most attached. He probably didn't think it right you having all this fun without your loving leader being in attendance.'

'Sure,' James snorted.

Sirius huffed, probably making a face over at James as he knocked on the wooden post of Remus' bed. 'You missed me, didn't you Rem? Well, you don't have to anymore. So you can come out and give me tales of grand adventure. I bet they're much better than Potters. He has a tendency to over exaggerate.'

So much of him wanted to go out and join them. He wanted to be part of that group. To laugh and joke with Sirius about them having the better Christmas. But he had given in to his fear for too long. It wasn't just going to go away now Sirius was back.

Another knock came. 'Rem?'

He clutched his wand close to his chest, ready to cast a spell if needed. 'Go away.'

'What? Rem-' The curtain shifted as Sirius tried to pry it back. Remus fired before he could reign his arm in, the spell hitting harmlessly off the wall behind Sirius' head. The warning was clear however.

'Go away.'

Some understanding passed between them. Sirius seemed to know then that it was wolf related as he dropped the curtain and turned back to the other two. Not for the first time Remus wondered what he did to deserve a friend like Sirius. Not for the first time, he wondered what Sirius would do when his persistence amounted to nothing. Remus wasn't coming out until classes started, and when they did he was keeping the widest berth he could to these boys.

Sirius continued on about his uncle throughout the evening. Telling them how different he was to the rest of his family. It seemed the man had made quite an impact on his nephew, Sirius swearing that when he was old enough he was going to go live with him.

Eventually the talk died down and the candles flickered to nothing. James' snores filled the air not long after that, the shuffle in the other bed telling him that Peter too was settling in for the night. Remus was surprised when Sirius didn't try climbing in with him. He thought there would be a confrontation as soon as the other two were asleep. Yet the hours dwindled and Sirius remained quiet in their room.

He didn't know what time it was when he finally gave in to his bladder. It was hard to move around a dorm full of boys, and before they had been sparse, barely even there because they were too busy chasing fun. The next few days would be a trial. For now however, Remus couldn't wait any longer, and carefully climbed out of his bed.

He felt bad when he stepped out. The room was still a mess, even more so now Sirius had added to the piles of junk. The boy himself wasn't in his bed like Remus thought, instead he was trying to trip him up on his way to the bathroom. He had set up a sort of camp, his pillow and quilt on the floor next to Remus' bed, and those pale limbs spread everywhere as he dozed. He would be lying if he said he had been hoping Sirius to insist his way under his quilt. Their sleeping habit had really become a habit. He just didn't sleep right anymore without someone kicking him through the night.

Tip toeing around Sirius, he stretched his arms, quickly flattening them down when pain flared up again. Why werewolf scratches didn't heal fast was beyond him. It was like it was rooting for him to die, or at least live his life in constant pain. Still, at least he could walk properly, his legs thanking the short walk into the bathroom.

He kept his eyes down the whole time there, avoiding every mirror, puddle or tap in sight. He blamed that for the reason why he didn't hear Sirius sneak up on him. One moment he was washing his hands, the next the bathroom door was sliding shut again, Sirius trapping the two of them together.

They looked at each other for a while, Remus knowing he had seen the gauze he had yet to take off from his face. Sirius was kind enough to hold his eyes for as long as possible. A minute, two, before his eyes slipped and widened in realization.

'It's fine.' Remus said, like he hadn't just hidden himself away for a week. 'They're just scars. I stopped crying over them long ago.'

Pale fingers came up, hovering between them as Sirius mouthed 'Face,' over and over again. 'Merlin,' He breathed, his hand retracting to touch his own nose. 'Merlin Remus.'

'It's fine.' He said, not proud with how broken that sounded to his own ears. He wasn't going to cry about this. He wasn't. It wasn't like he had ever been vain after all. Even without his scars he was plain, pale skin and blonde hair, a combination half the country had. So it wasn't like he was anything special.

Sirius actually touched him this time. His hand coming up to cup his jaw, those fingers swiping across his cheekbone and an apology slipping out as Remus hissed. He hadn't even realized he had let tears loose.

Hadn't meant to. But, 'This is my face. My face Sirius. I can't hide this. They're going to know, they're going to see and know and-'

'No,' Sirius insisted, repeating it again as he disregarded any pain Remus felt to wipe those treacherous tears away. 'They're not going to know. It's probably not even that bad. Have you looked at it?'

His head shook so hard his vision blurred when he stopped. 'I can't. I can't Sirius. It's my face.'

'And if you've never seen it it's probably not that bad,' Sirius tried again, moving them both over to the mirrors. Remus' feet tried to dig in, tried to run away. But Sirius was adamant, and some part of him was actually curious about it too. 'It's only going to get worse the longer you ignore it. We'll look together okay?'

'I don't want to.'

Yet he held still as Sirius gently pried the gauze away. The bloody strips didn't bode well. Nor did the cringe on Sirius' face. Although he insisted it was because of all the blood, Remus didn't believe him. He knew it was bad.

When three wads of toilet paper were safely in the bin Sirius made him look.

He tried to concentrate on his eyes, bargaining with himself he would learn to look only there. He had avoided looking at anywhere other than his face all these years, he could amend it once again to his eyes. But curious as he was, his eyes strayed, catching the first jagged pink line and following it from cheek to cheek. He did that again with the next, and the next, before his vision swam out and he took his face in full.

'It's not that bad,' Sirius said, looking into the mirror with him. Those grey eyes were fixed on Remus' scars, no hint of a lie in them. 'See?'

He looked at himself again, the three jagged lines across his nose. They were the main focus of his face. Never again would people look at him and not look to there first. It would label him before anyone else even asked his name as a werewolf.

'All I see is a monster.'

He heard Sirius breath heavily behind him. 'Really? Because, all I see is my friend.' The tone was joking, but when Remus looked back at Sirius he could read how sincere he was being.

It was touching. If only it would help him see himself differently.

They spent a few more minutes looking over Remus' new scars before a tired yawn from Sirius had them agreeing it was time for bed. Before they left he was drawn into an unexpected hug, Sirius playing it off by asking if Remus liked his Christmas present.

He did, and told Sirius such as they pulled the curtains back from his bed. He would have went on to tell him about all the notes he'd made had James not been waiting for them, reclining on the pillows with a sour look on his face.


	14. Chapter 14

Sirius drew his wand, the tip already sparking. Remus almost didn't recognize him, as he growled, 'Get out,' pushing Remus behind him.

He let himself stumble, the knowledge of what James had seen, was still looking at, was too fresh for him to cope. Questions were flooding over James' face, his brows drawing in and legs still not fully comprehending the seriousness of Sirius' threat.

The wand, held aloft between the three boys sparked dangerously again, Sirius watching James mouth over his words. 'Choose your next words widely Potter.'

'But there wasn't-' was the wrong thing to say as a hex flew through the air. It was just a warning, the spell bouncing harmlessly off their wall. Nevertheless it prodded James into action, taking out his own wand.

Remus could tell it was merely for protection, James was still working through his eyes were telling him. But Sirius had been taut the moment he spotted James' wand, and could only think of one reason why his friend had pulled it. The fight broke out with flashes of light bombarding everywhere.

Remus took cover behind the bathroom door, hearing the moment where Peter woke up in the warzone. He wasn't surprised when Peter came crawling next to him, needing shelter from the gradual dangerous spells that were working their way into the duel.

There was just one little problem with that, the usual want to help his friend gone in the wake of this fresh pain James had stirred. He recalled all those instances of Peter trying to out him, to kill him, and panicked at the thought of him too coming to the same conclusions James had.

It was survival instinct that had him wrapping Peter in a full body bind curse, his friend choosing a guilt inducing picture of surprise as his frozen image. He wasn't quick enough to catch him, the thump of flesh hitting hard stone echoing to the room beyond.

The shouting stopped instantaneously, Sirius running in and taking in the two bodies. He didn't even look at Peter, instead crowding around Remus. He hadn't realised until Sirius was holding him how loud his breathing was, he couldn't even hear the soothing words being directed at him. The growing noise made him more panicked, trying to think about how to calm down and just coming up blank when his brain wouldn't work.

James went to check on Peter, a hint of caution to his movements that told Remus everything. James knew. He really knew, and he was afraid of him. His vision started getting spotty, Sirius growing more panicked in front of him before he just faded from view altogether.

He felt when drastic measures were taken, one solid ball of pain spreading from his stomach to the rest of him. Sirius had punched him, actually hit him. He was shocked enough for his brain to reboot, the bathroom coming back into focus. Despite the hurt, Remus had to admit it worked, he could hear his breathing slow to a more regular rhythm.

When he finally came back to reality properly, he was sitting in the corner of the bathroom, his limbs feeling sore but not like they were about to break and sprout fur like before. Sirius was behind him, holding him in an almost hug as he told Remus to breathe.

'I get like that sometimes too,' It sounded like one of a longer speech, the beginning having been lost in his panic. 'Reg doesn't understand because Mum's always liked him. But I know how bad you can work yourself up.'

'What's happening?' He was exhausted, hating his very existence as he caught his reflection in the old Hogwarts pipes. The room beyond was a mess of sounds, ones he couldn't figure out right now. A particularly loud one had Sirius' hands clenching around his middle.

'I don't know. James is waiting for us. He took Peter out as soon as I got you over here. He said he was going to stay in the dorm, but...' He didn't know how long that would last, hung silently between them.

'I didn't mean to.' He heard himself say, not knowing what hew as apologising for. He should be sorry for Peter, but he couldn't find it in himself to be. There was just too much bad blood on this subject between them. Really, he was sorry for Sirius. For being himself and putting his friend in this position. He shouldn't be defended or helped. He was what he was, and knew the risks when he came here.

His nose stung, the scars pulling as Sirius flicked him. 'I can practically feel the self pity. You really need to stop it. It's not you with the problem Rem, it's them.'

'Yes well, excuse me for not seeing it that way.' He sighed, pulling his knees up, he just wanted to curl up in his bed and sleep this nightmare off. 'Now, this might be my last night in Hogwarts, let me wallow if I want. I should be allowed something after all.'

Another flick had him shielding his nose from more violence. 'It's not your last night.' He sounded so sure. Sure enough that Remus feared what was going through his head.

He unwound himself from Sirius' grasp, looking at his stormy face. 'Don't do anything stupid over me.'

Those dark brows drew closer together, Remus completely missing the flick this time. 'When will you understand that I'm your friend?'

'I do.'

Sirius shook his head. 'If you did you wouldn't be this...' he struggled for the right word, his hands venturing from scar to scar. 'afraid,' he settled on. 'I'm not deserting you, and I'm not letting you leave. We're going to sort this out.'

'How?' He really wanted to know too. He couldn't come up with anything himself.

Sirius didn't look to know either, mouthing something indistinguishable before helping Remus up. He caught his face again in the mirror, his reflection cringing before him.

'We're sorting that out too,' Sirius said, glaring at the mirror like it had personally offended him. He retrieved his wand, twirling it between his fingers before going out first. Remus heard him muttering under his breath, preparing a rather nasty hex they had learnt before they broke up.

Their dorm was chaos. A trunk was on its side, Sirius' things strewn everywhere. Remus' stuffed wolf was hanging from one of the bed frames, a noose of curtains keeping it swaying. He could see the drops of silver flaking from the fur, as could Sirius who turned even more thunderous than he was before.

The lamps were all lit, the room soft in reds and gold, the colours Remus would miss when he went home. James was at the door, his arms and legs splayed wide as he blocked Peter from escaping.

'I'm not afraid of you,' Peter said, the crack in his voice betraying his words. 'I swear James, I'll hex you if you don't move.'

'Then do it,' James challenged, not moving an inch from his stance. 'Go on Pete, lose all your friends.'

Harsh words, and they had their intended effect in halting Peter momentarily. At least until he spotted Sirius and Remus. The wand was back up before he finished blinking, Sirius taking a similar stance.

Remus almost felt sorry for Peter for doing that. Peter was drawing his more out of fright and defence, he knew the boy wasn't able to actually fire a spell off. He was the one who always refereed their duelling matches, his own reaction time not up to speed yet. Sirius on the other hand had already proved that night he wasn't afraid to fire against his friends. He would hex before Peter even flicked his wand if provoked.

'Put the wand down Peter.' He saw Peter look over to him, Sirius following the gaze. ' You even think about hurting him and I'll petrify you. Now tell me which beds you've laced.'

Peter didn't even try to deny it, shaking from fear as his head twitched to Remus' bed.

'He got your pillow too,' James informed them. 'And a bit of the floor. He was lacing the wolf over your trunk by the time I managed to stop him.'

Sirius scourgified his bed- a spell he said he learnt from his mother- five times before leading Remus to sit on it. 'You'll excuse me if I don't believe you Potter.' He hovered for a while, just watching Remus sit there. 'Tell me if anything starts burning,' he said before moving on to the rest of the room.

James stayed by the door as Sirius cleaned. His limbs had relaxed into a more comfortable pose, watching the room be set to right. Every now and then Remus watched that careful gaze slip from Sirius to him, the unabashed curiosity plain on his face.

Peter in comparison was like a trapped rat. His eyes everywhere and hands twitching, shaking so much it was a wonder he was still standing. It didn't help that every so often Sirius would question him about other things he might have tainted, little threats mixed in with his queries.

By the time Sirius was finished Peter was back on his bed, Sirius' destroyed silver clasp turning over his hands.

A spell was set to the door, the lock clanging loudly and finally in the room. James seemed to think it safe enough to leave his post, his wand heavy in his hand as he seated himself at the bottom of Sirius' bed. Or tried to. As soon as he sat down Sirius had his wand at James' throat, forcing the boy up and a good bed away. He also took his wand, going for Peter's and the clasp before finally settling down next to Remus.

'Here's what's going to happen: you two are going to swear an unbreakable vow. You're not going to tell anyone what you think you know. You're going to pretend nothing is unusual, and that nothing is wrong at all. I don't care if you never speak to us again after this, but you are not going to blow Remus' cover. Is that clear?' Really, Sirius didn't need to make more of a threat than that. He was angry, had taken all their wands and was sitting cosy with a werewolf, he was probably the most terrifying thirteen year old in the world right now.

Peter was on his feet, yelling at Sirius like he was a madman. It was the things he had come to expect from basically anyone. Why was Sirius sticking up for Remus? They should turn him in. Does Dumbledore know what he let in? Why was Sirius even sitting next to him?

James was quiet throughout it all, just looking at Remus while Sirius nearly tore Peter's throat out. It was unnerving. With Peter, he was scared, sure, but he had no wand and the clasp was easily deflected with a flick of his own. James was more devious, smart, for that. He would find a way, if he wanted, to make Remus' life hell. Him being calm like this, not knowing what was going through his head, it was bringing back every nightmare he ever had since coming to Hogwarts.

When he managed to get Sirius under control, namely by sitting on his back to stop him from mauling the other two boys, he tried the civil approach himself. He asked them not to tell, begging them to give him a chance. 'You know I haven't hurt anyone. Please, if you just don't tell anyone I'll leave in the morning.'

James frowned, some clarity coming onto his face, 'Why would you be leaving?'

'Did you not hear Peter?' Quite frankly how anyone could ignore Peter was beyond him. He was sure the first and third years on the floors next to them knew what was going on tonight.

James nodded, telling him that yes, he did hear Peter. 'But that's Peter,' he said. 'He'll get over it.'

'Get over it?' Sirius stopped squirming beneath him, seeming just as put off by James' surety.

'Well, yeah. I mean, you're Remus. You've been sleeping in the bed next to us for two years. If you wanted to maul us you would have done it already.'

'Unless he's waiting to fatten us up and then eat us,' Peter piped in, his eyes hateful as they watched another of his friends turn traitor for a monster.

James cast a rather unflattering look to Peter's stomach, the thing had taken a rather stretch over the holidays. Really, with all this food and no exercise over the holidays it was no wonder the whole of Hogwarts wasn't rolling around like barrels.

'No offence Pete, but I think that time has passed. We're not getting any fatter right now.'

'He might-'

'Pete!' James snapped, sending the other boy on his butt with less than a glare. 'Seriously, think about it. This is Remus. You were happy enough to fetch him food this morning. What's really changed between then and now?'

He thought for sure he was hearing things. It sounded like James was sticking up for him. Something Sirius was more than on board with as he pushed Remus off him and rallied beside James.

'He's harmless Pete. I spent a whole week at his over the summer. We spent it camping- and his room is like the most muggle nonthreatening thing in existence. It's actually mostly filled with books, and smells like he hoards chocolate. Which is another thing, I mean, how many scary murderous creatures like chocolate Peter? I mean, really, just look at him. The only thing I find scary about him is his wand skills.'

'He's a monster!' Echoed around the room, the only thing Peter could say to them. Remus could see Sirius and James getting to him, his brain trying to argue against his instincts to get away from Remus. He didn't think his brain would win right now, but it was enlightening to know it might some day.

Sirius didn't appreciate the name calling in any case, lunging through Remus' slack hold to the small boy. Peter let out an indignant squeak and nothing else, too scared under Sirius's assault.

It took a joint effort of James and Remus to get Sirius to separate from Peter, the two of them more than awkward when grabbing him. Remus went for Sirius' arm the same time as James and they would both pull away. James was eyeing him still when they managed to coordinate Sirius back to his bed.

'Attacking him is only going to get you in trouble Sirius. If you manage to get yourself expelled too, you're the one who's going to be going home more miserable than me.' The mere hint towards his family had Sirius paling, shrinking in on himself somewhat as he relaxed into his pillows. The threat was enough to stop any further assault on Peter for now.

Peter, was lack of a better word, defeated. Rumpled, tired and terrified beyond belief, he was clinging onto his bedpost, watching them with abstract horror. 'You're actually taking his side, aren't you?'

He didn't know who Peter was talking to. Sirius still glaring daggers, or James dividing his attention between sending helpless looks at Peter and staring shamelessly at Remus.

'He's our friend Pete,' Sirius said again. 'He's your friend. It shouldn't matter what he is, he's more than proved he's harmless.'

James sent one last look towards Peter, saying, 'Pete just think about it.' He stuck his hand towards Sirius, looking more serious than he'd ever been in his life. 'I'll swear a vow.'

'Really?'

Remus couldn't quite believe it. He thought for sure James would be the one to drive him out. Peter was scared, James was determined, there was a difference between the two. Not to mention all those years of pureblood propaganda the wizarding world forced down their throats about werewolves. Yet here James was, his hand out and letting Sirius bind him in an unbreakable vow.

Sirius stared at the hand for a while, looking at Peter afterwards like he was expecting a complete turn around and there actually would be two vows made tonight. When nothing happened, Sirius batted James' hand away, glancing at Remus to make sure that was okay, before making a threat more terrifying than before. He wouldn't make James swear a vow, not yet anyway. They were on probation, proving they could keep their mouth shut. If they couldn't, and they let even one word slip, Sirius would be wrapping whoever it was in James' invisibility cloak, tethering him to a branch on the whomping willow and letting them be thrashed around until he managed to smuggle Remus out.

That was directed to James. When he was finished, he didn't even bother talking to Peter. He told James that if he was serious about keeping Remus' secret he would convince Peter to keep his mouth shut. James nodded once, asking for his wand back and holding his hands up when Sirius said no. He could handle one night without it he said, and pulled Peter behind one of the curtains.

'We'll figure something out,' Sirius said, whether to himself or Remus he didn't know. He didn't care to know either. He was tired, he just wanted to sleep.

Sirius picked up on it, shuffling him back to the pillows and telling him to get some sleep. If only it was that easy.

There was still silver in the room, Sirius' clasp wasn't the only thing they owned made of it. They had cauldrons, tipped quills, books cornering their books, there was silver everywhere and it had only been the good conscience of his friends that had stopped him from being burnt before. Now, there was every chance that he could be attacked in the night. He didn't trust James. Even with an unbreakable vow it didn't prevent him from not assaulting Remus. It just meant he wouldn't tell anyone. With Sirius having locked them in, it wouldn't be too hard to make up a crime scene. They had motive, being locked in a room with a man eating monster. They had a means. They had everything, and not for the first time Remus felt more prey than predator, the thought keeping him wide awake as Sirius wound further and further over him.

Every noise had him jumping. Every hour that passed had him sinking into more and more panic. The only thing that stopped him from completely melting down again was Sirius. His breathing was kind of soothing, a monotonous motion that never stopped at his back. It helped him sync up, make sure he was keeping a pretence of calm so that if he was attacked, his friends would think he was unprepared.

Morning came with rain. Almost as soon as the sun was supposed to be up they heard the pitter patter of drops hitting their windows. The skies were grey, almost black, when they figured out breakfast was probably being served in the great hall.

Sirius was hesitant about letting them leave. He had stuck close to Remus all morning, acting like a bodyguard as he changed into his clothes. He knew it was hard for the boy to remain focused on keeping him safe. More than once while they were in the bathroom he would catch Sirius leaning to do this or that on his own, as right he should, only to remember the others brushing their teeth at the sink with Remus. It made him sick to think this might be their life from now on. All he had wanted was to come to Hogwarts, to be thought of like any other student. He had made friends, got good scores in his lessons and knew what being happy actually was for once in his life. Now all that was being taken away from him, all because of some stupid thing he had. He was making his friends lives harder, Sirius' life infinitely more so.

Maybe it was best if he slipped away and told Dumbledore he wanted to go home. It would only take a few months before Sirius forgot all about him. Maybe less than that for James and Peter to forgive the betrayal. They could go back to causing mischief like before. All it would take would be to get Remus out of the equation.

It was a herculean effort for Sirius to hand back the wands. More so to unlock their door. He couldn't help stopping James and Peter before they went out and threatening them one last time, his wand showing how serious he was with his words.

'No one. You understand?'

James nodded, elbowing Peter to do the same. Remus had heard the hushed whispers last night. He didn't know what James had said specifically to Peter, but he did know that there were no harsh glares or mumbled threats when they interacted that morning. Peter looked to be pretending Remus didn't exist. It was something he could live with, a better alternative to the other.

Sirius caught his arm on his way out too, linking it with his and dragging his other hand over the lines on Remus' nose. 'We'll say you fell off your broom head first into the forbidden forest. A stray hippogriff got you. It should make you more respected in any case.'

'A hippogriff?' He didn't even know where to begin on that backstory, but Sirius seemed happier with his question, maybe the tone of it, since he smirked and led them practically skipping to the great hall.

'They're fierce-some creatures. And I know Hagrid has a herd of them somewhere.'

'Which is all the more reason for us not to blame them. I'm not having something killed just because I was stupid enough to get scratched last week.' Which it would be. Creatures, any creatures really, that harmed a wizard were usually put down so they wouldn't strike again. He didn't want that on his conscience. Not to mention there would have to be an inquiry. If Peter actually managed to keep his mouth shut, he didn't want all that blown because he was being investigated for a supposed creature attack.

'See, this is why it's just unfair,' Sirius huffed, his skip slowing until they were a good few paces behind James and Peter. 'Anyone else would be happy to blame a hippogriff. But you, with your heart of fluffy gold, doesn't want to in case they put the poor thing down. It shouldn't have been you.'

'But it is, now keep your voice down.' They were already getting a few odd looks. Nothing too bad, just a few curious first years. Actually most of the students didn't seem to care. They were too wrapped up in welcoming their friends back from the winter holidays to look at a banged up second year.

They made it to their usual spot, James pulling faces at the crowd around him. They really had grown used to having the castle to themselves. Remus didn't know whether to be angry or touched that Sirius was trying to shield him. He was like a meerkat, perching up at every noise or lingering look their way and hovering in front of him.

In any case the added attention Sirius was giving him was getting people to look over at him. Most of them second years, and most of them too busy again with their friends to give a care about Remus. Until Lily.

She came walking in with Snape, the two of them talking about something or other. Or, Lily had been, Snape had seen Sirius scowling around and seemed to be ignoring Lily in favour of staring at them instead. A few hissed words later and Lily was storming away from him and over to Remus.

'What happened to your face?' She demanded, looking back to where Snape was trying, and failing, to look like he wasn't listening.

'An accident,' Remus said, trying to think up a good lie. he had never been good at them, it was why he had been happy Sirius was.

'None of your business,' Sirius piped in as expected.

Lily ignored him. 'What accident?'

He couldn't think. Sirius' story from before came to mind, blaming it on an animal. It would be so easy. But his conscience was adamant he wouldn't be able to live with that. He tried to think of another way he could get scratches. He could have fell, or-

'He got whacked by the willow.' James was outright glaring at her with a similar expression on Sirius.

'The willow?' She looked dubious, but with the assault of James and Sirius silently telling her to drop it, she was looking more uncomfortable to be there.

'Yes, the willow,' James said. 'And it's going to scar, so you can see why he doesn't want to talk about it.'

She got the hint, mumbling an apology before stalking back over to Snape.

'The willow?' Sirius asked.

James shrugged, 'It has branches that could do that.'

Sirius squinted for a while, all over breakfast actually, trying to suss James out. Remus didn't blame him, he felt the same. James had just made up an excuse for him instead of outing him. It was a start he supposed. Not to mention Peter didn't say anything either. Maybe he really was serious about keeping his secret. Time would only tell.


End file.
